Not Such a Silent Night
by spuffy4eva
Summary: A Season Six Christmas? And all the scoobies INCLUDING Spike staying at Buffy’s house? Ooo how interesting! Especially since Spike and Buffy are still together with noone knowing…. Set post ‘Older and far away’ COMPLETE!
1. Eggs

**Summary**: A Season Six Christmas? And all the scoobies INCLUDING Spike staying at Buffy's house? Ooo how interesting! Especially since Spike and Buffy are still together with noone knowing…. Set post 'Older and far away'

**A/N** : Hehe can I just first say that this is supposed to be a bit of Christmas fun since I was inspired by all the great Christmas stories on here. I highly recommend Baby, its cold outside by Addie Logan (In fact I recommend anything by her!) Anywhoo, here's my story, Hope ya like it. And to all those who are waiting for an update on Stronger Together, I'm sorry! But a very bad case of writers block is killing me here!

Also, those of you who read this story before the eighteenth of December will find that I have changed the structure to meet the problems some people had understanding the dialogue.

**Disclaimer:** Look at the website you are on. FAN FICTION. Point made.

The vampire kicked her straight in the jaw. Great, she thought, that's gonna be a massive bruise tomorrow. Like her colleagues didn't think she was weird enough. The vampire interrupted her inner moaning by kicking her in the stomach. Ok, her brain said, this is getting annoying. She punched the vampire in the face and before he had time to bring back his head she punched him again before treating his chest as if it were a punch bag, all the while visualising the stupid school kids who had flooded into the Doublemeat today and ordered a thousand different things at once. After she had finished with the punches she laid several kicks in the more painful areas of his anatomy. The vampire she was fighting toppled over and a crack and a squish could be heard.

"My eggs!" she squealed.

She then looked at the vampire with pure fury. "I was just gonna stake you" She lifted him up with one hand.

"But now" She threw him across the cemetery and he crashed through a nearby headstone.

"I am gonna kick your ass" Buffy's inner voice kicked up a little protest at the lack of pun but the rest of her brain told her that she was way too tired for pun's. Another niggling part of her was worried about that. She walked over to the vampire and proceeded to beat him up. He tried to get a kick or punch in somewhere but Buffy was on a roll.

Finally she put the limp and beaten demon out of its misery and staked him. She waited a moment to catch her breath and the annoying yet ever present part of her brain told her that she hadn't beaten anybody up that bad since Spike. She shook her head, Spike and that beating was an uncomfortable place she was not ready to go yet.

"Looks like you took out all your frustration on that poor guy" Buffy turned round to see a face that her top half really didn't want to see and the bottom half was screaming out for.

Spike pouted, "I'm all upset now, thought that's what I was for" He smirked wickedly. She sighed and walked past him and picked up her shopping bag, which had been discarded during the fight.

"Spike is that all you ever think about?" She challenged him determinedly, she knew she needed to put as much distance between them as possible otherwise she would never get home and she was trying to be there more for Dawn.

"You should count yourself lucky I am even looking Slayer, that orange outfit is enough to stop traffic, and not in the good way" Spike said. She looked down self-consciously at her painfully bright Doublemeat outfit.

Spike smiled to himself as he watched her take the bait, he knew she hated that outfit but it was always a good place to hit her because it meant he could do this… " Kidding luv, I couldn't give a toss what you wear, you still look amazing to me"

Buffy crumbled and smiled. She loved how he could look and say things like that to her because it made her feel all warm inside, made her feel safe, loved. Spike watched as she smiled at him and knew how it made her feel when she let him compliment her. He could tell her that if she would let him, he would spend eternity telling her how utterly amazing she was and just how much she meant to him, but he knew if he did that it would push her on the wrong side of the fine line their relationship was on. She would run away, leave him, and he would rather have his tongue cut out then let that happen.

She looked straight into his eyes and felt her well-intentioned resolve slip; things were just so simple with him, so clear.

Spike covered the distance between them in record time. He bent down and whispered in her ear " Promise I wont touch your eggs pet, no harm of that don't worry" he chuckled slightly, a low sexy chuckle that sent shivers everywhere in her body.

But something niggled at her, something he had said… " My eggs!" She pulled back from him and opened her shopping bag.

Spike peered in. " Was wondering what you were going on about with that vamp, why you so stressed about egg's for?"

"I'm making breakfast for Dawn tomorrow, sort of a make up meal, you know?" Buffy spoke quickly while trying to get the egg box out without causing any more damage. She got them out very slowly.

"Oh to make up for the recent house arrest issue? Shouldn't that be the other way around? I mean she did keep us in a house for 24 hours, not that being so close to you for that long was a problem" Spike smirked again but she was busy trying to open the egg box and talk at the same time

"She was tricked into that by a vengeance demon, and she only made that wishbecause she felt I wasn't spending enough time with her, so that's I have these please-forgive-me-for-neglecting-you eggs"

Buffy gave up. " Can you open them? I'm too scared they're all squished and I've had to carry these things like they were china doll's all day. Really don't want to lose them now"

Spike sighed, "Come on hand them over you silly bint, looks like you need a big strong man to help you after all" He secretly liked the fact that she needed his help on something other than sex and fighting

"1. I SO do not need a man to do anything for me" Spike raised an eyebrow but Buffy ignored him " 2. It's an egg box, hardly a challenge 3. Open the damm box!"

"Geez calm down will you, I'll open the bloody thing!"

Spike prised open the box ever so gently to reveal three crushed eggs and three unharmed ones.

Buffy squealed and jumped up and down " They're not squished! Yay!"

Spike looked at her and was sure she had never looked more adorable then she did right now. Buffy took the eggs off Spike and gave him a long kiss, which she only broke off from for air.

"Guess I can see the big part of big strong man" Buffy gasped.

Spike grinned wickedly at the compliment and pulled her closer " I'm sure you can do more then just see"

Buffy pulled away, and Spike had to restrain from pulling her back again.

"No, tonight is about me and Dawn and I can't let other things screw that up" Buffy shook her head to try and rid it of where things would have gone if she hadn't pulled back

"Well I was hoping to screw something" Spike muttered under his breath, and he knew he was extremely lucky that Buffy didn't hear that. Buffy walked away muttering to herself about self-control.

Spike felt like sighing again but since he didn't breathe it was always more of a chore then it was when he was alive. Instead he shook his head, getting anything from that girl was like getting blood from a stone he thought. Actually scratch that, he was there when that stupid vampire had started that saying. It was really funny watching him try to do it, he was obviously as mad as Drusilla and didn't have a clue what he was doing but after what seemed like ages he got something out of it. He chuckled to himself as he realised that that vamp had done it quicker then he had even managed to kiss Buffy. Spike watched her until she was out of even vampire sight and walked back to his crypt as he wondered if he still had that guy's number. Desperate times call for desperate measures.


	2. Tried, but failed

**A/N: **Hope you are liking what I am doing, I am open to suggestions!

**Disclaimer:** Is this really necessary?

Buffy opened the front door hesitantly and closed it without making a sound. She could see Dawn on the phone, probably to Janice. Buffy had been meaning to talk to Dawn about her talking to Ms Its-fun-to-date-vampires. But she realised probably the main reason she hadn't, was her guilt at being able to take that title off Janice as she did _way_ more with her vampires then make out with them. She blushed and cursed inwardly; stupid Spike was always creeping into her thoughts. She watched Dawn quickly checking to see she hadn't seen her so she could change out of the offensive garment that was sticking to her body in the most uncomfortable places.

Dawn put the phone to one side but didn't look at Buffy. "You don't have to hang about out there, you can go change I promise I won't look at you"

Dawn then went back to chatting. Buffy swore like she had many times before, that Dawn had somehow picked up some of her slayer senses.

Buffy walked into her room and was really, really tempted to drop on the bed and not wake up until the next apocalypse, although she wasn't sure she would even wake up for that. Sleep was easier, for a while everything melted away and her problems left her to rest. She craved the peace it gave her, it was the only place she got it, well there and…. Buffy shook her head to rid her head Spike for the third time that night. I'm really going to have to stop doing that, she thought. I'm starting to look like I've got a tick or something. She sighed and undressed as if on autopilot settling for a few minutes of mind sleep rather than body sleep. She was dressed and downstairs before her brain had a chance to knock itself out of the fuzz it was in, damm slayer speed she thought. She drew in a deep breath and tried to be as engaged as possible as she entered the kitchen just as Dawn hung up the phone.

"Buffy, hey I can actually look at you now without getting blinded."

Buffy automatically tried to cover her clothes before she realised she wasn't wearing the dreaded outfit anymore.

"Relax oh vain one I'm just teasing you" Dawn walked over and gave Buffy a peck on the cheek.

"How was work?" Dawn asked as she went over and rummaged in the fridge.

"It was okay, apart from this group of little brats who came in at lunch time, I swear if it had turned out that the Doublemeat had been making people burgers, I would have gladly offered these kids up on a plate"

Dawn poked her head out of the fridge looking slightly horrified

"I'm kidding! But there was this one kid that I just wanted to…."

"Can we save this conversation for say oh I know, never?" Dawn looked slightly green as she said those words.

"Sorry, it's just been a bad day"

"No big, after you've seen the insides of a demon's gut, it's kind of hard to be sick over these things" Dawn emerged from the fridge with a chicken leg.

"Is that what your eating for dinner?"Buffy watched as her sister messily ate her chicken

"Yeah, why?"

"Well I was gonna cook something, you know I figured I might as well try…" Buffy stopped as she watched her sister clutching her stomach with laughter.

"Oh I'm sorry Buffy," said Dawn in between gasps of breath. "It's just that you and cooking…" She was off again.

"Hey! I make good food!"

"Yeah good toast maybe, thanks God Tara's doing the turkey this year"

Buffy turned red " My cooking isn't that bad!And what do you mean Tara's cooking the turkey this year?"

Dawn stopped laughing abruptly and started picking at the surface top. "Well you know it's Christmas in a week and I kinda invited everyone round to ours"

Buffy was about to yell at Dawn for inviting people around to her house without telling her when she spotted Dawn looking even more guilty.

"Dawn"

Buffy crossed her arms and in her head she prayed Dawn wouldn't say what she thought she would say. "Who exactly is everybody?"

Dawn started driving her nails into her palm and wondered the best way to approach this. "Well there's Willow and Tara, Anya, Xander, Spike"

Dawn mumbled Spike's name very quietly but Buffy heard her worst fear being confirmed loud and clear

"SPIKE! You invited Spike to CHRISTMAS DINNER!"

Dawn's mind was racing as to whether she should play the innocent or try and stand up to her and win her over that way.

"I CANT BELIVE that you would do something like that without even telling me! You invited a vampire to a Christian holiday! Doesn't that seem wrong to you?" Buffy said, staring angrily at her sister.

"Oh come on Buffy it's not like he is going to hurt us!"

Damm it Dawn cursed inwardly, I was supposed tokeep my mouth shut. Oh well guess it's fighting then.

"You can go over there right now and tell him that under no circumstances is he allowed over here at Christmas!" Buffy shouted.

Buffy was furious at her sister for going behind her back, but also because she was fairly certain with her friends in such close contact, it was going to be impossible to keep her and Spike a secret.

"Fine, I'll go over there and tell him that my sister is being a tight ass bitch and he can't come over, even though he wont even eat anything!" Dawn went to storm out of the back door but Buffy was there before in an instant and blocked her way to the door.

"Oh no you don't, your not going out there at this time of night!"

"Well then how exactly am I supposed to tell him? You want me to fly there?"

Dawn crossed her arms a stubborn face intact but inwardly smiled as she watched Buffy realise that if she wanted Spike not to go, she was going to have to tell him herself. She could see the emotions conflicting in her face.

"Fine, I'll tell him, but you stay here and you lock the doors while I go clean up this mess" She slammed the door without another word to her sister.

Dawn sighed and turned around. "Chicken it is then" she mumbled. She spotted the pizza menu. "Ooo anchovies here I come" She smirked as she dialled.

Buffy stormed through the graveyard, hoping she could keep up her anger all the time she was with Spike. She just hoped he was feeling in a really annoying mood tonight, as it would make this a lot easier. She stormed through the crypt and dropped to the lower levels of the crypt. She could make out through the faint candlelight that Spike was in bed and asleep. She looked at him and felt all these emotions rush through her. His hair was all ruffled and he was shirtless. God he looks so yummy when he sleeps she thought, if I just had some whipped cream…

"Are you gonna stand there all night or have you just come to gawp?"

Buffy tore her eyes away from his chest to see that he was looking intently at her. How does he do that? How does he manage to smirk with his eyes?

"I just came down here to tell you something"

"What? How cute I look when I sleep?"

Buffy's mouth dropped a little bit and her heart skipped a beat as she wondered whether he could read her mind. His smirk extended from his eyes to his face as he realised he was right. Buffy quickly recovered.

"Dawn told me that she invited you to Christmas dinner" She was put all her strength into keeping her tone neutral

"The bit might have mentioned it" he stretched lazily for dramatic affect as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. She was staring at his chest.

"Wanna come and join me over here? Might be a new experience actually making it to the bed" He grinned at her.

"Spike stop it, I haven't come here for that" her tone was firm but her mind was anything but. It always turned to mush at the sight of him

"Come on Slayer, we haven't done anything since the Bronze, not to say that wasn't fun" Buffy blushed at the memory as Spike's grin widened.

"Look, you can't come to Christmas OK? It's too dangerous"

"Afraid you might not be able to keep your hands of me?" Spike was up now and he was sliding up to her, graceful but predatory.

"You've already proven that you and my friends together in a house is not a good idea"

Spike was right next to her now.

"What just because I threatened to eat that nancy boy? Please! Besides, I promise I won't bite anyone" he leaned down and whispered in her ear "except for you anyway"

Buffy pushed him away but he only laughed. " Don't worry, they wont be able to see where I will bite you, and I promise it will bring more pleasure then pain"

"You're a pig Spike" Buffy spat as Spike came up in front of her again.

"So you keep telling me, but yet, you're still here" Buffy weakly tried to push him away but he just grabbed her and kissed her so hard her resolve was gone in an instant. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled on the fine hairs at the end of his neck. He moaned and pulled her in tighter. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her effortlessly onto the bed. He laid her down beneath him and she pulled away for breath.

"I shouldn't"

" But we both know you want to" And that was the last word Buffy said against the subject.

Afterwards, she lay in Spike's arm's shaking from the intensity of it. She knew that in a moment she was gonna jump up and run out of there like a scalded cat. But that was in a moment, right now she just wanted to feel these arms around her, and know that he loved her and that he would protect her. It's not that she needed someone to protect her, but the way Spike did it, it was more of a I-cant-bear-to-lose-you kinda way then the your-to-weak-to-defend yourself way. And she liked it, knowing that somebody had her back not because she asked them to and not because they needed to, but just because there was nowhere else on earth they would rather be.

Spike lay there with his arms wrapped around Buffy and he listened to her heartbeat regulate. It was times like these when he felt like he was floating. It was like he was holding onto life itself when he held her and he got to bask in the pure joy of feeling like he was alive. It was times like these when he loved her so much he wasn't sure there was anything but love in his entire body. Which is why it was always worse when she left. As if reading his thoughts, Buffy slid out of his arms and he in that moment had never felt deader. She had stopped storming out a little while back, they had both known she was disgusted with herself so there was no need for the spectacle. He watched as she quietly dressed and Spike felt it was like watching the one thing you want more than anything in the world be wrapped up and put under the Christmas tree and you weren't allowed to open it until Santa Buffy said so. His thoughts then took a nice little tour down what it would be like to see Buffy in a Santa's suit. She looked at him expressionless.

"Don't come to Christmas, I am officially uninviting you"

Spike tried hard to ignore the lump that had formed in his throat and the stomach at those words.

"Guy can take a hint pet"

He looked at her softly but she could see his pride swelling up to cover it. She climbed out of the crypt silently. Spike lay back down with a thump. Now, he thought, Buffy in a Santa suit and something tells me I have been a very naughty boy this year…. He grinned and settled down to sleep with the scent of Buffy on his sheets.

* * *

See I told you! Hours! Review if you want more or I might be tempted to hold the next chapters hostage! Only kidding.. well almost ; ) 


	3. Secret wantings

**A/N:**Thanks for the reviews! I LOVE getting them for this story as I'm still really unsure about it. So drop me a line if your feeling kind

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Buffy, I wouldn't share it.

Dawn was pacing up and down the living room. It's all right, its not that bad she thought. If Buffy says he can't come then we can just get her drunk on lots of eggnog and then we can sneak Spike in and… no actually scratch that, when Buffy was sober she would hit the roof… probably with Spike. Dawn's pacing got faster, the TV was on but she barely noticed, and she was beginning to wear a hole in the carpet. Just then, Dawn heard Buffy's key in the lock. With well-practised speed she was on the couch in front of the TV before Buffy even opened the door.

Buffy opened the front door carefully; she really wasn't looking forward to this. She knew how much Spike meant to Dawn but he just couldn't come for Christmas. Spike belonged to her world as a slayer, a world that she fought like hell to keep away from Dawn. She closed the door and resisted banging her head against it. It was times like this when she really missed Giles. She looked at Dawn, and even though she knew that Dawn was trying to make it look like she hadn't been eagerly anticipating her return, she knew she had been. And she knew she would be disappointed.

"Dawnie?" She ignored her. Like she knew she would.

Buffy flipped a coin in her head. She could either be nice about this, or she could be firm. Right now after that whole thing with Spike, firm was easier.

"Dawn look I know you wanted him to come, and I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do"

Dawn stood up. "Yes there is! If you weren't such a stubborn ass you'd see that it really isn't that bad, so what he comes and hangs around with us for a while? It's not like he hasn't done it before!"

"That was different, this would be intentionally inviting him into our house to celebrate something with us, Christmas is about family."

"Oh come on Spike's basically family, he's done a lot for us" Dawn had her arms folded now, defiantly.

"Dawn he's a vampire! Useful for fighting other vamps or stopping apocalypses but that's it, that's where it ends, you have to see that."

Dawn just looked Buffy up and down in anger. Inside Buffy's head, something was telling her that should be where it ended, but for some reason, she wasn't letting it end there and she was really confused as to why. Dawn pushed past Buffy and ran up the stairs before slamming her bedroom door.

"Guess I'm gonna need more eggs" Buffy sighed and went into the kitchen.

"Dawn" Buffy knocked on her door. No answer. She went to knock on the door again but Dawn opened it while Buffy's hand was still in the air. She looked at Buffy with a harsh scowl.

"What?"

Buffy looked slightly sheepish. "I made egg's, scrambly ones your favourite"

Dawn just looked at her briefly. "I'm not hungry" She slammed the door in Buffy's face.

"Ouch! I haven't seen her that bad since the accident" Willow appeared next to Buffy looking rather worried.

"She's mad about the whole Christmas thing"

Willow looked panicked. " Oh no Buffy, I don't want you to think that Tara can't come because of me, I mean were doing better now, since that whole spell thing when we all got locked in here and there was this look that she gave me and I think…"

Buffy interrupted " Will, she's not mad about that, of course Tara can come, but she's mad about Spike"

Willow looked confused. " Why would I not want Spike here?"

Buffy shook her head, her eyes still partially on Dawn's door. "No, she invited Spike over for Christmas and I said that he can't come"

Willow was confused." Why can't he come? It's not like he will be eating anything, and he cant hurt anybody"

"THANK YOU!"

Dawn could be heard shouting from her room. Her bedroom door swung open so fast that Buffy was sure she must have been standing right behind it.

"Will you PLEASE tell my sister, that I know she has dealt with many apocalypses but Spike coming to Christmas dinner is NOT one of them!"

Buffy started to get a little angry then "Why does everybody think this is a good idea? Is this some kind of joke?"

"Buffy I hate to gang up on you but it's just a couple of days and I'm sure he hasn't got anywhere else to go you know seeing as,well he's probably he killed all of his friends."

Buffy raised her voice. "You guys this is Spike! Bleached blonde bloodsucker? Where's Xander? He'll support me"

Dawn crossed her arms and she suddenly saw an angle. "Since when do you hate Spike so much?"

Buffy coloured and she panicked slightly. Dawn couldn't know could she? Think Buffy, think!

"I don't hate Spike I just…"

"So why won't you let him come? What's so bad with him coming?" She smirked slightly knowing she was getting to her.

Damm it, Buffy thought, that smirk is exactly like Spike's.

"Dawn, I get what your saying but…"

"But what?" Willow had to cut in. "I'm sorry Buffy but I'm trying to see your point and I'm just…"

"Not?" Dawn helped her out while secretly sending Willow good thoughts that she hoped Willow was getting.

Buffy looked from her best friend to her sister and knew she was beaten. Well secretly, didn't you want to be? Come on, I know you are thinking about how much fun it will be to have Spike around…Buffy sincerely hoped her inner voice would shut up. It was gradually getting more Spike centred with every day. She sighed.

"Fine, he can come but you are telling him"

Buffy stalked off to eat breakfast and tried to ignore the fact that she was secretly pleased. Dawn jumped up and down giggling happily while Willow watched Buffy's retreating form sure, that there was more to this then meet's the eye.

Dawn crept into the crypt careful not to let any rays of sunlight in.

"Are you really sure you should be doing that niblet?" Spike was perched on the sarcophagus smoking a cigarette.

"Well excuse me for not wanting my friends to be big piles of dust" Dawn said as she walked over to him.

" You know what I mean, big sis is probably on her way now looking to get dust happy at you creeping over here again"

He liked seeing Dawn, she was so much more relaxed around him then all of the other nitwit friends of Buffy's.

"She knows I'm over here, she wanted me to come invite you to Christmas, she also said she's sorry for being such a bitch yesterday and that she hopes you can forgive her"

Spike just raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, so maybe those weren't her exact words…"

Spike threw his cigarette on the floor and jumped down to stamp it out with his foot before turning to Dawn

"Look pet, I know you wanted me to come but Buffy made it pretty clear. Don't exactly want to go up against her"

He was sure Dawn was just trying to be nice to him, but he didn't want to look like a fool trying to beg to be taken in. He hadn't stooped that low. Yet.

"Look I swear on pain of death"

" You shouldn't swear on that luv" Spike interrupted "a lot of nasties out there willing to hold you to that"

Dawn ignored him. "She said you can come, that's a start right?"

Spike had to admit it was progress. He hadn't actually expected to go from the beginning but now that Buffy was really giving him the OK he was starting to be really pleased. Maybe this meant something to her after all? Who knows, maybe at the end of it, he would be more then just her dirty little secret.

"Spike?" Dawn was looking at him slightly worried and he realised she was waiting for an answer.

"If the slayer says it's OK, count me in"

Dawn squealed and hugged him. Spike smiled, it was nice to know that at least one of the Summers women liked him.

"Besides it'll be fun pissing off the whelp" Spike grinned as Dawn rolled her eyes. Well, he thought, It's gonna be some Christmas.


	4. Preperations and Decorations

**A/N: **Hey! Another chapter! Woohoo!spikespet2002 pointed out that Buffy's birthday wouldn't have been right before Christmas which is very true, but for my story it is. I know it's wrong but I'm just having a little bit of fun with this story. Sorry if that goes against the show. Enjoy! And Review!

**Disclaimer: **See previous chapters.

"Dawnie I think it should be a little higher" Dawn stretched to hold up the Merry Christmas sign she had in her hand.

Willow frowned. "A little higher"

"Hey my arm isn't made out of elastic you know" Dawn grumbled. Her arm was hurting and she wanted Willow to hurry up so that he could be there when Spike arrived. She knew her sister still wasn't OK with this arrangement. They had been putting up decorations for the last hour and Dawn was starting to get agitated.

"Why cant we just wait till Tara gets here? She can put up all the streamers and stuff like you did for Xander and Anya's engagement party" Dawn climbed down from the stepladder rubbing her tired arm.

"Because Dawn" Willow said slightly exasperated ."Magic isn't about making pretty streamers when you're feeling lazy, that's not what it is for"

"Glad to see I've had some influence on you" Tara said standing at the living room doorway, watching Willow with a smile on her face.

" Tara! I didn't know you would get here so soon, not that you're not welcome or anything it's just…" Willow wanted to stop rambling but whenever she saw Tara, her mind went all over the place.

"What she means to say is" Dawn interrupted and threw Willow a I-will-rescue-you look which Willow gratefully accepted "We're really happy you're here" Dawn went over and gave Tara a hug, and Tara squeezed her tight but she still kept her eyes and her smile on Willow. Willow looked nervous.

" You know what? I think I am gonna go see what Buffy is doing, and try and hide the stakes before Spike arrives" Dawn grinned and left the room.

Willow stood nervously trying not to fidget too much. Tara could see that and it only made her smile more. Maybe Willow had changed, and after what she had just heard her say to Dawn, Tara was beginning to think that maybe a make up was on the cards.

"I brought the turkey, nothing like a big dead bird to bring out the holiday spirit." Tara showed Willow the platter that had a rather large turkey on it.

"Well technically I'm not supposed to be eating turkey you know being Jewish and all, actually technically I'm not supposed to be celebrating Christmas, but I figure this year what with everything that's been going on it will be kinda nice to have us all together again" Willow realised she was rambling again.

"Yeah it will be nice, to have us all together, together is good"

Willow's ears perked up at Tara's last word's. She couldn't mean what she thought she did…could she?

"Tara hey! I didn't hear you come in!" Buffy came into the room and gave Tara a hug.

" I only came in a second ago, hey is it true that Spike's coming?" She gave Buffy a politely interested look, but Buffy knew what she really meant.

"Yeah well, Dawn wanted him along, and then Willow chipped in so I figured hey, the more the merrier! But he's sleeping in the basement though" Buffy added the last part quickly, she wanted to make sure that Tara knew nothing was going to happen, now all she needed to do was convince herself and Spike. She quickly changed the subject.

"Well it's good you're here, we could use some help with the decorations, I tried to chop down a tree seeing as we left it so late but Dawn seems to be holding all my weapons hostage" Buffy rolled her eyes as she said this."I think it's a security measure, to make sure all of our guests actually stay alive, well undead I guess is the correct term, but it doesn't matter anyway, Xander's on his way over with one"

At this, Willow interrupted confused. " What a weapons bag?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, a tree he said he's gonna steal one from his parents, they will probably be to drunk to notice " Buffy looked slightly uncomfortable.She turned to Tara.

"Wanna help set the tree up?"

"Actually I think I better get started on the food, it could take hours" Tara nodded towards the turkey.

"Are you sure? You could put the angel on the top?" Willow looked at Tara hopefully as she spoke.

"Maybe, after" Tara gave Willow a long smile before leaving to go into the kitchen.

"Wow, check out the heat in here" Buffy walked over to Willow, teasing her " I feel like we should crack a window open or something" Buffy grinned at Willow as she turned red with embarresment.

"Really? You picked up on that too? Cause I really don't want to get ahead of myself…"

"Trust me" Buffy interrupted. "You two are defiantly sending each other horny vibes"

"Hey! We were not!" Willow looked embarrassed. Buffy smiled inwardly to herself. It was nice to see her friends happy.

The front door opened and a lot of noise and banging could be heard. Both the girls walked over to see Xander who was wrestling with a gigantic tree.

"Need some help with that?" Buffy asked.

"No" Xander ducked quickly when a branch nearly wacked him in the face. He finally managed to get it to stand up properly. " There! See? The Xand man's got it under control." He looked very pleased with himself as he stood next to an enormous tree that almost touched the ceiling.

"Ooo yay! We got a tree! Can we decorate it now?" Dawn called down as she stood halfway down the stairs with an exited smile on her face.

"Easy Dawn, we still have to get that thing into the living room, where did you even get it?" Buffy looked the tree and finally took in its size and wondered how the hell he got it in the door let alone to her house.

"Watch it Harris! You've got bloody pine needles all over my jacket now" Spike entered brushing off his jacket.

"Spike kinda helped me with the tree on his way over" Xanderadmitted, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Evening all" Spike grinned at all of them

"Spike!" Dawn jumped up and down and went to jump down the stairs.

" Dawn don't!" It was too late, as soon as Buffy said the words Dawn had jumped head first into the tree by accident and the tree landed on Xander while Dawn was a mess at the top, tangled in the branches

" Dawn!" Buffy rushed over to help her and Willow went over to Xander.

" Xander are you OK? Xander?" There was no answer.

" I think my leg is stuck" Dawn tried tugging at her leg to get it free. "Buffy, can you get this thing off… Whoa!" Dawn was cut off as the tree was all of a sudden pulled up and stood up straight. " Thanks" Dawn said while trying to get her face out of the pinecones.

"It wasn't me " Buffy looked in slight shock as Spike continued holding up the tree and lifted Xander up with one hand.

" You alright mate?" Spike looked at him worriedly, which only made Buffy more confused.

"What the…"

"Err, Buffy? Do you think you could help me out here please?" Dawn pleaded her sister to try and snap her out of the haze she was in as she was looking at Spike. Spike looked up and gave her a quick smile, which snapped Buffy out of it. She helped Dawn untangle herself from the tree. Dawn started massaging the base of her spine

"I think I pulled a muscle or something" She stretched.

"Wish I could say the same for the boy here, he's out cold" As Spike spoke he jerked his head in the direction of Xander who was unconscious and still being held up by Spike's hand.

"Maybe we should lie him on the couch" Willow gestured towards the couch as Buffy came over and put her head under Xander's arm to bring him over. Both Buffy and Spike placed Xander gently down.

"Dawn why don't you get some water or something?" Dawn went out to the kitchen.

"What if we slap him awake? Will that do the trick?" Spike was peering down at Xander. Buffy shot him an evil look.

" What? Trying to help here" Spike felt like shaking his head at Buffy, any excuse to make me look bad hey slayer? Some things never change, he thought. Dawn entered with a jug full of water.

"Got it." She handed the jug to Buffy who looked guilty at Xander.

"Will, you do it. You've known him the longest, I feel bad"

"I'll do it" Spike grinned only to earn himself another look from Buffy. Willow took the jug off Buffy and gave Xander a guilty look. She threw the water on his face. Xander woke up choking and spluttering.

"Sorry! It was Spike's fault!" Willow quickly said.

" Hey!" Spike said angrily. Looks like Buffy isn't the only one who likes to make me look bad he thought.

"What happened?" Xander sat up still coughing.

Willow sat next to him. " Dawn jumped down the stairs and ran head first into the tree which landed on you. You were unconscious" She explained to him.

"A thanks wouldn't go a miss, did save your life and all" Spike piped in.

"Thanks"

Spike was taken aback. He was expecting a sarcastic comment or a look from one of them but instead he got a thanks? Maybe this whole thing wouldn't be as bad as he thought...

"Why did you jump head first into me anyway Dawn? You that glad to see me?" Xander asked curiously.

"No, Spike was at the doorway and I was just running to say hello, you and the tree got in the way." Dawn shrugged. She hadn't even said sorry and what's more, Xander didn't say anything. Whelp must be concussed Spike thought.

Tara came running in from the kitchen with an apron and oven gloves on. "What happened? I heard a crash I thought there was a demon" She looked panicked.

"No, Dawn and Xander were just making a tree sandwich, no biggy" Buffy told her.

"Oh good." Tara looked relived, " Hey Spike and Xander why are you all wet?"

" Oh it's nothing just a little wake up call it appears." Xander chuckled slightly. "So are we gonna put this tree up or not?"

An hour later Dawn Spike and Xander were still arguing over whether and angel or a star should go on top of the tree and they had tinsel and baubles all over the floor. Buffy was hanging out with Tara in the kitchen.

"I mean it's not like I want him here because I don't, it's just that Dawn and Willow wanted it and I figure it's good to get in the spirit of Christmas cheer" Buffy was talking as she sliced potatoes while Tara was basting the turkey. "I mean really I'm doing a good thing, but it's for Dawn not for me because I know that nothing can happen while she's still in the same house. But that's not to say we would do anything if she weren't in the house because we wouldn't " Buffy quickly added.

Tara just smiled and carried on with what she was doing. "Buffy, it's OK, you don't have to explain yourself to me" she tried to say it gently hoping that Buffy wouldn't pick up on the snigger in her voice. She could see that Buffy was happy about Spike being here but she felt like she had to cover it up, although why Tara couldn't quite make out.

"Egh, that turkey looks horrible, how can you do that without heaving?" Buffy screwed up her nose.

"You can cut off demon's head's but you can't handle one little dead bird?" Tara grinned at Buffy's face.

" Yeah well I don't have to eat the demon's head for Christmas dinner do I? I like my turkey nice and crispy. And also dead. When's it gonna be ready?" Buffy asked as Tara finished.

"I'm putting it in the oven now so it should be while a while yet. Dawn wanted us to play some games I think." Buffy groaned. She had a sneaking suspicion that Dawn's games would NOT be fun. Shouting could be heard from the living room.

"What are you talking about? A star is so much cooler then an angel." Buffy could hear Xander say.

" I'll make you see bloody stars in a minute, an angel is classic, you have no taste!" Spike shouted. Buffy knew she should go in but she didn't have the energy, especially since she knew they would ask her to have the deciding vote and that wouldn't go down so well.

Unfortunately for her, Xander and Spike came into the kitchen. " Buffy will you please tell the ungrateful undead that a star is WAY better on the top of the tree?" Xander stood with his arms folded glaring at Spike.

"Ooo I'm in big trouble now Xander's told on me, can't you do anything without your precious Buffy can you?" Spike gave Xander a taunting look.

Buffy sighed. " Can't I leave you two alone for two seconds? Your making such a big deal out of this"

Xander walked over to Buffy. " Look this can easily be settled, Buffy it's your house so which do you think is better?"

Buffy looked from Spike to Xander and she knew that she was going to end up pissing off one of them."Actually I kinda think that an angel is better, but that's only because mom used to have an angel" Buffy cast a quick look at Spike who was looking slightly shocked that she had agreed with him.

Xander on the other hand was furious. "Oh that's so typical, always choosing Angel over the rest of us"

Up until that point Spike had been basking in the knowledge that Buffy had sided with him for once, and in front of her friends no less, but now he had a sneaking suspicion that Xander had hit the nail on the head.

"Oh my god Xander only you could find a way to throw that in my face, I just agree with Spike that's all" As soon as Buffy said that she regretted it. She really hadn't meant it to come out like that but obviously her subconscious was against her. Spike on the other hand was over the moon. She had actually admitted to being on his side to Xander of all people! Spike's hopes for how this holiday would go had suddenly risen. Xander just stared at his friend in disbelief. Since when did she side with Spike? Buffy could sense Xander's anger and she opened her mouth to talk but she was interrupted by Dawn who appeared at the doorway with a mischievous grin on her face.

"Hey guys look what I found! Mistletoe anybody?"

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Well? TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! Oh and a MASSIVE thank you to those who have already! You will be mentioned next chappy I promise! And here's a little tit bit, the next chapter is gonna involve mistletoe... (GREAT invention)... and lots of... REVIEW TO FIND OUT! 


	5. Mistletoe

**A/N:**As I mentioned in the first chapter I completely re-structured this story, due to the problems some people had with the dialogue. I hope people find this easier to understand. Also some bad news, Ihave to go away to to somewhere with no computers, so updates for the next week or two will be impossible. Belive me, noone is more upset then me! I will try my hardest to find a way though, but I cant promise anything! Thanks to all those who have read this story, you are the BEST! And those who review? EVEN BETER!

**Disclaimer: **Choose from the various sarcastic comments in the last chapters, all of which will tell you that I own nothing.

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Buffy gulped. Right now, for the first time in a long time she was actually scared. She had no idea what Dawn was planning to do with this mistletoe but she was all too aware of her little sister's vivid imagination.

Dawn was just grinning. She couldn't believe it when she had found it but now, she was thanking God that she had. This would be the perfect way to get Tara and Willow back together, and she could have a little fun in the process. The problem was, what would be the best way to go about it?

Spike looked at Dawn's mischievous grin to Buffy's terrified face. He knew that he should let this go, Buffy had done something nice for him by siding with him against Xander and he wanted to show his appreciation for that. But this was just to tempting. What the hell he thought, guess I must still have some evil in me after all. Oh well, here goes nothing.

"Dawn, what exactly do you plan to do with that?" Spike asked innocently.

Buffy looked at Spike as he said those words and she knew instantly that he wasn't going to make this easy for her. Stupid idiot, she thought. This is the thanks I get for backing you up?

"Dawn maybe you should put that away, I mean there aren't any real couples here anyway, well apart from Xander and Anya and Anya isn't even here yet." Buffy told her sister in a kind but firm tone.

Spike glanced at Buffy. Right, he thought, there aren't any real couples here? We'll see about that.

"Oh I don't know Buffy, seems the bit here might have found us a little bit of fun, besides, where's the harm in mistletoe?" Spike grinned at Buffy as he said this.

Buffy felt like punching Spike. He's so arrogant she thought, and he knows that this is going to bug me.

Dawn looked from Spike to Buffy. What was going on there? Seemed like they were having a silent battle.

Willow came in the room. "Hey guys, the upstairs is done. And the tree looks great you guys"

"Yeah it would do if it had a star on top" Xander mumbled.

"What was that?" Buffy asked Xander innocently. Xander took the hint and shut up.

"Come on, everyone in the living room, I've just thought of this great game we can play" Dawn said eagerly.

Everyone just looked at each other. All of them except Spike looked unsure.

"Oh for God's sake, it won't kill you to have a little fun you know" Spike almost accused them.

"Fine. I'll play but just don't tell Anya, she'll kill me" Xander said a little scared.

"Whipped" Spike said as he coughed very unrealistically.

"You know that would work if you actually breathed" Xander retorted glaring at Spike.

"Come on let's just stop sniping at each other and get on with it" Willow said rolling her eyes.

" I don't know…" Buffy trailed off.

"What? Everyone else is willing to do it right? What's your problem?" Spike shot at her, knowing he had her cornered.

Buffy looked at all of them and sighed. She just hoped this wouldn't turn out how she was dreading. She got up and followed everyone else as they went into the living room with Dawn. Spike and Dawn sat on the sofa and Willow and Tara sat on the floor next to each other, throwing little smiles at each other. Dawn noticed this and her grin got wider. This was going to be fun she thought. Xander went and sat in the armchair. As Buffy was the last in she was forced to sit next to Spike. Their finger's touched for an instant but it sent shivers down both of their spines. Dawn got up and stood before them all.

"Ok so basically here is how the game goes. We put the mistletoe above the doorway and we pick one person to stand underneath it. Then every person has to say one thing they think that person would like for Christmas. If they get it right, then they get to stay sitting down but if they get it wrong they have to give the person a full kiss" Dawn emphasised the word full and looked at Willow and Tara.

Spike's mind was racing. A full kiss eh? Well, he thought, I think I am currently experiencing selective amnesia.

Buffy's mind was also working furiously. What did Spike want for Christmas? Blood? She was dammed if she knew. She would just have to pray that he wasn't picked.

"So who's going first?" Spike said trying hard to suppress a grin.

" I vote Willow should go first" Dawn said, praying that everyone else should agree.

"Oh I don't know Dawnie…" Willow looked worried, what if she had to kiss Spike?

"Tough, I am the mistletoe holder so I make the rules" Dawn stood with her arms folded, with her version of a resolve face.

Willow sighed and got up. All she could hope was that Tara had forgotten what she wanted. Dawn stuck the mistletoe on the top of the doors in the living room. She grinned at Willow before sitting down.

"Ok who wants to go first?" Dawn asked. "Buffy?"

"Ok, I think Willow wants some new clothes for Christmas". Buffy said smiling at her friend. She hoped she was right, she hadn't been paying much attention to her friend lately.

Thankfully, Willow smiled to indicate that Buffy was right.

Dawn looked excited. "Xander?"

Xander thought for a moment. "Oh I know, you want a new psych book, you told me you highlighted all over your last one." He chuckled slightly.

Again Willow smiled. Dawn then looked nervously at Spike. "Um, Spike?"

Spike was trying desperately to think of things that Willow might like, unfortunately most of them were R rated considering her relationship with Tara. Then, he had an idea. " A broomstick?"

Buffy looked at Spike and felt like rolling her eyes. Wow Spike, can you say STEREOTYPE? Still, it beat him having to kiss Willow. She almost shuddered at the thought. Judging by the look on everyone else's faces, they agreed with her.

Willow considered not letting Spike off with that, but then she saw Tara's face and she quickly smiled at Spike. Spike looked relived. Dawn was practically bouncing. She really hoped that this worked out.

"Tara?"

Tara looked at Willow and she smiled at her. "I can't think of a thing she would like"

Willow broke into the hugest grin at this; it was almost big enough to match Dawn's. Tara got up slowly and went over and kissed Willow softly. Dawn was just ecstatic and both Buffy and Xander looked uncomfortable. Spike was just sitting back and enjoying the show, until Buffy hit him lightly. Spike just winked at her.

Willow and Tara broke apart and smiled at each other. Without saying anything they both went over and sat down holding hands. Dawn felt like singing, she had done it! She knew she had taken a HUGE gamble because they might not have been in the right place yet but after seeing the way Tara smiled at Willow when she first got here, Dawn knew she was doing the right thing.

"Ok who's up next?" Willow said almost in a daze she was so happy. This is what she had wanted for so long, and now she finally had it. She was not going to screw it up this time; she wouldn't use magic until Tara trusted her with it again. But even if she didn't, with Tara here, Willow felt she could walk on water without using so much as a single spell.

Buffy shifted around in her seat uncomfortably, she was praying harder then she ever had in her life that her or Spike wouldn't be picked next. As much as her and Spike had a history together, she didn't know anything about him, and for once that wasn't going to work in her favour.

"I vote for Buffy" Spike said smirking.

"You think we can't see through that dead boy? You just wanna get your hands all over Buffy. Like you'd know what she would want for Christmas" Xander practically snorted.

Spike just continued smirking and all of a sudden it occurred to Buffy that Spike might know what she wanted, but was just not going to say anything. At that moment, Buffy had never ever in her life wanted to beat the crap out of Spike more.

"You going up next?" Dawn asked Buffy.

Buffy said a thousand prayers to every God in existence and got up like she was going to her execution. Boy, she thought, I feel real sorry for the vampires I meet tonight INCLUDING Spike. She shot him a death glare and tried to send him a telepathic message. If you screw this up I will strangle you with your own nervous system. She just hoped he would get it.

"Ok, so let's start with…" Dawn looked around the room. She was kinda bored now Willow and Tara had got back together, so know she was looking to have fun. Xander? She thought, nah, that's just gross and I don't want to choose Willow or Tara so I guess that leaves…

"Spike?" Dawn said looking innocently at Spike, trying not to laugh at her sister's face, which had just turned several shades of green. Spike on the other hand was at that moment deciding what kind of present he could get for Dawn for doing this for him.

"Hmmm, what would Buffy like for Christmas?" Spike asked out loud pretending to think.

Xander was just watching him fists clenched. He really hoped that Spike's stalking habits had paid off and he somehow knew, because there was no way he was letting Spike kiss Buffy. Just then, Xander caught a glimpse of Buffy's face and he relaxed, he didn't need to do anything. Buffy looked like she was going to kick Spike's ass just for being picked.

"You know what? I have no idea what Buffy would like, isn't that weird?" Spike said with mock realisation.

Dawn felt like giggling, she, like everyone else in the room could see straight through that, especially since at Spike's request she had told him what Buffy wanted.

"Dawn I think we should give someone else a go, maybe we should ask Willow next?" Buffy hoped that her sister and Willow would get the message.

Unfortunately, Dawn was not on her side. "No, no Buffy, you know the rules. Because Spike didn't know he has to kiss you" She grinned.

Spike went to get up but Xander intervened. "You are soo not kissing Buffy"

"Xander, it's the rules, and unless you want Anya to know you played this game then I suggest you shut up" Dawn said as she glared at him.

Xander looked at Dawn shocked. "You would'nt"

"I would". Dawn had a wicked gleam in her eye similar to the one Spike was currently wearing and Xander shut up. Buffy on the other hand looked at Xander like he was a lifeline that had just been pulled away from her.

Spike got up and went over to Buffy. He grinned at her and before she had a chance to protest he kissed her. As soon as his lips met hers the rest of the room melted away. Buffy felt the huge need that Spike awakened in her whenever he was near burn through her. At that moment, she didn't care that the most important people in her life were watching a live show of her darkest secret. All she cared about was getting more of Spike.

Spike was on fire. He was kissing her which was always amazing but now he had the exact right audience, actually considering where their hands were going, maybe Dawn wasn't the best audience, he thought. He could feel Xander's eyes burning a hole in his back but that just made him pull her in closer. She moaned in his mouth and pulled him in further too.

Dawn just stood there like a goldfish. Buffy and SPIKE? She knew that Spike loved Buffy but this… by the looks of things that love wasn't unrequited any more. Dawn looked around at Willow who was wearing a similar expression while Tara just looked embarrassed but not shocked, Does this mean that Tara knew? Dawn wondered. She looked at Xander and almost burst out laughing, he was looking at Buffy and Spike who were STILL kissing in a very NC-17 way like he either wanted to throw up or burst into a fit of rage. The result was a face that looked like it was being wrung out to dry.

Buffy and Spike finally pulled apart so she could breathe. It took a few minutes for them to break apart as Buffy's head was still spinning. The look on Xander's face brought her sharply back to reality.

"Err Buffy? Is there something you want to tell us?" Willow said still looking shocked.

Buffy just looked at her friend at wished the ground would swallow her whole. Judging by the look on Xander's face this was not going to be pretty.

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SO...what do you think? Good? Bad? Tell me! I feel like Buffy (although not in the i-dont-want-to-kiss-Spike way!) I need a lifeline! Your reviews will help me through this... and who knows? I might just come back with the whole story finished! 


	6. Fight or Flight

**A/N:** I am SOOOO sorry about the delay's in this! I was away abit longer then expected but I'm back now! Bcak to my computer which I missed like crazy (that probably makes me sound a little bit sad...) So I have finished this story but I am gonna give it to you in stages the first of which being right now. Enjoy!

By the way.. A MASSIVE MASSIVE thank you for all the reviews! It was the second best present I got! ( The first was the Buffy Box! WOOHOO!) I send my love and truly heartfelt thanks to every single one of you who reviewed thank you!

**Disclaimer:** Seeing as its Christmas (or at least it was when i wrote this) I will refrain from being sarcastic and just say that I own nothing.

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As soon as Buffy looked into Xander's eyes, she wished she had paid more attention in biology class because she would have asked her teacher if there were any other choices other than fight or flight. But, she had to admit, flight was looking pretty good right now.

"You and Spike?" Dawn asked still in shock.

Buffy looked into Spike's eyesand saw the hope in them, hope that she wouldn't break his heart by passing up such an obvious chance to come clean.

"It's…complicated" Buffy managed to get out still keeping her gaze on Spike hoping against hope that what she saw there would be enough to keep her strong through this revelation.

Spike bore his gaze deeper then he ever had into Buffy, willing her to feel the love he had for her, trying to let her know that he was there and that if she denied this now, there was no going back.

"What's so complicated? It's you and Spike big with the smoochies, I'm not a kid Buffy, it's obvious even to my tiny teen eyes you got something going on" Dawn said crossing her arms trying to cover her shock by looking not bothered about it.

"I…" Buffy stuttered as she willed herself to hold on to Spike's gaze, don't let go she thought, if I can just hold this for a little bit longer maybe they will all go away…

"Buffy, what the hell are you doing kissing Spike like that? Are you two involved?" Xander seemed to only just snap out of the trance the kiss had sent him into and he stood up.

Dawn gave him a "duh" look and rolled her eyes.

Buffy broke the gaze to face Xander; she saw the shock and the hurt there and instantly felt ashamed.

"Xander look I know this is a shock but…" Buffy tried to explain

"A shock? No! I mean it's not like we haven't seen this before" Xander interrupted "You risking all of our lives, inviting a vampire into your home and into you bed never thinking what's going to happen when he turns on all of us"

Buffy glared at Xander. "Do NOT compare him to Angel! I can't believe you would bring him into this! This is totally different!"

"Bloody right I'm nothing like that ponce" Spike muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Your right, at least Angel had a soul, I'm not saying I like the guy, but at least he had some claim to being good" Xander sneered at Spike

"So when he lost his soul, killed people and almost destroyed the world was he good then?" Dawn added angry at Xander for attacking Spike.

"Angel was different" Buffy spoke quietly " I'm not saying that Spike is like Angel and I'm certainly not denying what he is, but he's helped us, been there, killed demons when he didn't have to"

"Yeah because the government shoved a chip up his brain! What happens when that comes out? You don't think he wouldn't kill everyone of us if he had the chance?" Xander asked Buffy, while also shooting death glares at Spike.

"You maybe!" Spike snorted and walked up to Xander. "But despite what you might think I wouldn't hurt anyone else here and I certainly wouldn't touch Buffy"

"Spike's right Xander" Willow said getting up and speaking for the first time.

Xander turned to look at Willow amazed. "You're siding with him now? Don't tell me you two have been at it behind my back as well"

"Hey that's not fair" Tara said in a very stern tone "You may not like what Buffy is doing but it's her decision and if you're her friend then you should support her"

Spike looked at Tara amazed that one of Buffy's friends aside from Dawn was actually standing up for them. Suddenly something clicked in his brain.

"Cramp!"

"What?" Buffy looked at Spike confused.

"That time with the house arrest thing you said something to me and it always…you knew didn't you? About me and Buffy" Spike said to Tara looking at her in wonder

Willow looked at Tara hurt and shocked "You knew?" She almost whispered

"W-when Buffy told me she said to keep it a secret," Tara looked into Willow's eyes and felt a rush of guilt. "I wanted to tell you" She squeezed Willow's hand.

Spike turned and looked at Buffy."You actually told one of your friends about us? How come you didn't say anything?" Buffy looked uncomfortable.

Xander looked between Spike and Tara confused. "Wait how did you know that she knew?"

"Something she said to me, when I was with Buffy and she walked in on us. Said I had a cramp but she picked up on it. Guess she knew what we were really doing" Spike shrugged.

"You did it in this house? Where? Never mind I don't want to know there are too many mental images" Xander covered his eyes as if trying to block out the images that were now flooding his brain.

"We did not do anything in the house." Buffy assured Xander. "Tara just saw us at a bad moment that's all. Nothing would have happened" Spike just raised an eyebrow.

"Oh that's reassuring. To know thatyou two have been sleeping together everywhere in Sunnydale but this house is a real calming thought" Xander said sarcastically, his hands now away from his eyes.

"It was difficult. I was going through something, I still am. Spike was just…there" Buffy struggled to define why her and Spike had started this in the first place.

"And you couldn't have come to us" Xander didn't say it as a question, more as a revelation.

"So are you guys are like together now? But I don't get it, you didn't want him to come here in the first place" Dawn said trying to make sense of the whole situation.

Buffy sighed and looked at her sister. "That was only because I didn't want you to find out about us, I didn't want something like this to happen"

"But you and Spike were still gonna carry on seeing each other?" Willow asked.

Buffy was silent and she looked down at the floor for a second. "No"

Spike was stunned and really pissed off at this. She could not believe she could blatantly lie like that. Or is she lying? A very evil voice said in the back of his mind. How do you know that she wasn't going to break up with you anyway? I mean come on, what better way to do it? Invite the sad pathetic vampire over for Christmas and then stamp on his heart in front of people who hate him? All these thoughts ran through Spike's mind in the second after Buffy had spoken. He then decided that he wasn't going to stay and be humiliated, he'd rather get drunk and do it at Willies. Spike just walked to the door and threw it open so hard it came off the hinges and he strode out.

Buffy turned round and watched him go.

"Shouldn't you go check on your boyfriend?" Xander said to Buffy's back.

Buffy ran out of the door without thinking and Xander's mouth dropped. Dawn walked in front of Xander.

"You might wanna close your mouth Xander; you wouldn't want your foot to fall out"

Spike was at the end of the path.

"Spike!" Buffy shouted from the steps of her porch.

Spike stopped and turned round. "Shouldn't you be inside? Don't want to tangle Xander's panties"

"I didn't mean what I said in there"

"Funny, cause it looked to me like you just broke up with me. But then again we never really had anything to begin with did we? I was just your ticket to oblivion"

Buffy stayed silent but walked towards him, Spike watching her all the way until she was right in front of him.

"It was more then that"

"Oh please don't try and dress this up, we both know that you hated yourself for what you were doing, why else would you use your famous slayer speed to get out as soon as you were done?" Spike's tone was angry and resentful.

Buffy didn't know what to do. She needed Spike that much was true, but the rest was all grey area just like they're whole relationship. She looked into his eyes and felt like running away and taking Spike with her, to hell with her friends.

Just then a snowball hit Buffy full on in her face. She tried to spit out all the water that had just invaded her mouth.

In spite of himself, Spike sniggered. She looked so cute with her face all screwed up like that. He turned his head at the sound of other giggles and saw Dawn laughing her head off on the top of the steps. He then realised that the entire lawn was covered in snow. He looked up and found that gentle flakes where falling. He closed his eyes for a second and a snowball hit his face. This time it was Buffy's turn to laugh. And at that moment, they both forgot why they were fighting.

"Oh you are so gonna get it" He smirked at Buffy.

Buffy was about to reply when both of them were hit with more snowballs.

"Right that's it" Spike said and both he and Buffy turned to look at Dawn who stopped laughing when she saw them looking at her. They both grinned evilly at each other then at Dawn and they picked up some snow and threw it at her before she knew what was happening. Dawn wiped the snow from her face to see both of them laughing.

"Oh you are so dead!" Dawn shouted.

"Already dead luv"

The three of them then had a very noisy snowball fight in the freezing cold, laughing and throwing puns at each other.

"All I'm saying is, it's wrong. I mean come on its Spike!" Xander exclaimed as he sat with Willow and Tara in the living room.

"OK so maybe the whole being dead thing doesn't earn Spike major brownie points but still he's nice and he does love Buffy" Willow tried to reason.

"Stalks her more like" Xander muttered.

"Xander, he does not stalk her" Willow said frowning at Xander.

"Yeah but…" Xander stopped when he heard Dawn scream. All of them jumped up to go to the window to see Spike on top of Dawn.

"I knew it!" Xander made for the door but was stopped by Willow's arm

"No wait look, they're playing" Xander stared through the window to see Dawn push off Spike and sit up before throwing a snowball at him while Buffy laughed.

"Now how many evil vampires do you know do that?" Tara asked Xander.

Xander was silent.

* * *

So? Do we like? 


	7. All nighter

**A/N:** Wow and wow again. The response to the last chapter was so good! I got nine reviews in less than 24 hours! I don't know if that's alot to any of you but it is to me! Anywhoo, I wasn't going to post this chap for another couple of days, but I figure if all of you went to the trouble or reviewing, the least I can do is give you another chapter... so here it is! Hope you like!

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Buffy, Bangel would not exsist.

Buffy lay in the snow enjoying the cold feeling on her skin. She was trying to catch her breath after a particularly fast paced snow fight with Spike. At first they had all been playing nicely but Dawn soon got out of the way when Buffy and Spike started using their speed to full advantage. She knew that Spike was close and probably waiting for the perfect moment to bombard her with snowballs. Sure enough Buffy felt a snow ball narrowly miss her, and she went to do a back flip to get up and surprise Spike. However, she forgot that with snow come ice and ice is not good for doing back flips in heeled boots. Therefore she ended up on her back, wincing in pain.

"If you wanted to be on your back luv, all you had to do was ask"

Buffy lifted her head to see Spike crouched down in front of her smirking.

"I would punch you for that, but I think my hands have frozen solid"

"Good thing I don't feel the cold then ain't it?"

Spike scooped Buffy up in his arms and Buffy didn't protest. He carried her over to where Dawn was sitting on the porch exhausted and placed her down.

"You guy's are lucky you stopped, it will be light soon"

"Have we been playing for that long?" Buffy asked shivering.

Spike took off his duster and placed it round Buffy's shoulders. She pulled it around her inhaling Spike's scent. Spike smiled at the sight of her and Buffy smiled shyly back. Dawn noticed this.

"Did you guy's make up? Because you shouldn't listen to Xander, just wait till Anya get's here she'll get him to shut up"

Spike didn't know what to think. Up until Dawn had thrown the snowball at them he had been ready to leave Sunnydale completely. He couldn't take it any more, the lies and the secrecy. As much as he loved Buffy more then anything else in existence, he didn't know if his heart handle her breaking up with him. But now, seeing her wrapped up in his coat all he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her body, watch her fall asleep, and never ever let hergo.

"Dawn could you go inside? Help Tara with the turkey?" Buffy asked her sister hoping she got the message.

Dawn received it loud and clear. "Sure" she shrugged and went inside but went straight to the window.

"Don't think I don't know your there" Buffy said loudly without turning round, knowing full well that Dawn was at the window.

Dawn grumbled and stomped off to the kitchen mumbling about how unfair it was to have a slayer as a sister.

Buffy started to play with the sleeves of Spike's jacket unsure of what to say.

"Look I'm gonna take off, probably best not to have me and the whelp in the same house for Christmas"

Buffy didn't look at Spike.

"OK" She mumbled.

Spike just looked at her blankly, turned around and walked away.

"Spike wait" Buffy was up and at his side in a second.

"You can't go yet, the sun's almost up"

"I'll be fine, there a sewer entrance just up the road, should be able to make it without getting all crispy"

Buffy looked into his eyes and immediately she knew didn't want him to go.

"Stay"

"What for?"

"Because I need you"

Spike tried hard to cover the hurt in his eyes as he spoke bitterly. "You got your friends, and I'm sure you can find some other guy to get your kicks out of. You'll do just fine without me"

Buffy didn't answer, she just took his hand. Spike looked down at her hand as she interlocked their fingers. Spike looked up at her confused and slightly hopeful.

"I'm asking you to stay"

Spike tried hard to figure out what she meant by that, but all he could see in her eyes was determination.

"What about Xander? Your friends? I doubt they'll be happy with your ex sleeping in the basement"

"They'll deal. Anyway it's not about them, it's about us."

Spike's heart leapt at the word 'us'. He didn't want to think too much about anything else, he just wanted to bask in the knowledge that she had basically called them a couple.

Buffy led Spike to the front door still holding his hand, she opened it and led Spikeinside. She turned round andleaned past him to close itand took that moment to stare at him, inches away from his face, and his lips.

"Oh and by the way, you're not my ex"

With that, she left Spike still standing in the hallway mouth open. Slowly, a grin came across his face. Well, he thought. Guess we'll have to test that out won't we?

Willow was busy icing cookies with Tara in the kitchen. Dawn came in with her hair still wet from the snowball fight.

"Hey guy's what you making?"

"Some little Christmas men, we were thinking a little sugar might brighten up everyone's mood" Willow said.

"How are things with Spike and Buffy? Did they work it out?" Tara was anxious to know.

"When I left them they were still big with the goo goo eyes, so they're probably of having wild sex all over the house now" Dawn said casually.

Willow and Tara both looked at Dawn with matching shocked looks.

"I'm kidding!"

Willow hit Dawn with an oven glove and Tara let out a little laugh.

"Well at least I hope I am, never can tell with those two. Hey do you think they've done it in here?" Dawn asked curiously.

"OK Dawn do you want to help me with the punch, I made a special non-alcoholic one for you" Tara said trying desperately to change the subject.

"So not fair! Buffy get's to drink and she's under age!"

"Buffy didn't do the hula on the front lawn last time she had a glass of wine" Buffy said coming into the kitchen.

Dawn blushed slightly. "That was like two years ago! I'm waayyy more mature now"

Buffy just rolled her eyes. Willow frowned.

"Hey is that Spike's jacket?"

Buffy looked down and noticed she was still wearing it. Her first thought was to take it off but something stopped her.

"Yeah" was all she said as she started playing with one of the carrots.

"Buffy I hate to ask and I don't want to pressure you but are you and Spike together now? Like a proper couple?" Willow said tentatively.

Buffy continued playing with the carrots.

"I don't know, it's complicated"

Dawn let out a frustrated cry. "Will you stop with the complicated?? What is so complicated about you and Spike together? You love him, he loves you its pretty simple"

Buffy looked up sharply at Dawn "I do NOT love Spike"

"Oh please I've seen the way you look at him, even before I knew there was anything going on, you love him! Why are you trying so hard to deny it?"

"Dawnie maybe you shouldn't push so hard" Willow said putting an arm on her to try and calm her down.

"I don't know what I have with Spike but it's not love. Right now we are just in a really confusing place and I don't want to push it. Just give us some time."

"Fine, but if you hurt him, then don't ever expect for me to talk to you" Dawn stalked out of the room.

Buffy just looked at her sister's retreating form. Willow and Tara both looked uncomfortable.

"Just give her some space, Spike means a lot to her, she just doesn't want to see him get hurt that's all" Tara said softly.

Buffy sighed and turned round "I know, I know" She looked at the couple in front of her. "At least one good thing came out of the damm mistletoe, its nice somebody enjoyed it" Buffy looked at the two blushing girls with a small smile on her face.

"And I'm sorry Will, I know I should have told you but at the time I was just so all over the place, I didn't think I could handle anyone else knowing." Buffy looked apologetically at Willow.

Willow gave her a reassuring smile "It's OK Buffy, I get why you did it, and I respect Tara's decision not to tell me" She squeezed Tara's hand for the last part. Tara grinned and then looked outside at the gradually lightning sky and a shocked look came over her face.

"I can't believe it! I've been cooking all night! We are sogonna end up having this stuff for breakfast"

"Eww! Turkey for breakfast?? Soo not nice" Buffy screwed up her nose and Tara laughed.

"Can't we just like freeze all this stuff?" Willow asked.

"I guess so, I just didn't expect it to take so long, but then again I have never cooked for this many people before"

"We should all just have cookies for Christmas" Buffy said as she stole a cookie

"Hey!" Willow protested

"Sorry but I think that I have more then earned my sugar fix for today" Buffy said with her mouth full.

"Speaking off Xander" Tara said with a sly grin. "He left a little while ago; gone to check out where Anya's got to"

"Which translates as, I've gone to moan to my girlfriend because big bad Spike has stolen his best friend" Willow muttered dryly.

Buffy giggled "Spike would be so happy if he heard you call him the big bad"

"Bloody right I would, glad to see someone's remembered who I am" They all turned round to see Spike leaning on the doorway. Spike's heart leapt as he realised that Buffy was still wearing his coat.

There was a small silence, broken by Buffy trying to get the coat off.

"You probably want this back"

"Not at all" Spike walked over and gently placed the coat back on her shoulders. "It looks better on you anyway, but don't tell anyone I said so" He winked at the girls and then looked down at Buffy who was staring up at him. He allowed himself a few minutes before he dragged his body away from her.

"Just came out to check out the basement, suns up" Spike forced out.

Buffy pointed towards the basement and Spike went over and opened the door, shot a quick glance at Buffy, before he went down and closed the door behind him.

"Wow I feel like I should crack a window open or something" Willow said mockingly.

Buffy just threw some chocolate chips at her.

Just over three hours later Buffy found herself outside the basement door again. She had done pretty much everything that needed to be done for Christmas eve tonight, she had everyone's present including Spike's which was currently at the top of her closet away from Dawn's prying eyes. Now her boredom was getting the best of her, and she was itching to go down and talk to him, but she didn't know how. Finally after much inner turmoil Buffy opened the door and crept downstairs.

She saw him sprawled out in the cot fast asleep with absolutely nothing but a sheet to cover him. She was just about to start drifting off into daydreams over how cute he looked with his hair ruffled when she remembered the last time she had seen him sleeping. She quickly settled her gaze on his face. Almost as if he were reading her mind Spike's eyelids fluttered and he awoke. When he saw her he broke into a lazy grin.

"Is it just me? Or do you feel a bit of déjà vu?"

Buffy blushed "I thought you might like some blood, Dawn got some in for you" Buffy revealed the mug she had behind her back.

Spike sat up. "Didn't sign up for room service"

"It's kind of my way of saying sorry, for before"

"No need luv, seeing you still in my jacket is more then enough" Spike indicated towards her and Buffy realised for the second time today that she still hadn't taken off the jacket.

"I think I'm finally realising why you never take it off, it's really comfortable. Plus I look cool" Spike chuckled at hearing Buffy say that.

"Well I think it's safe to say that after you've worn it for so long I am never taking it off again. It'll be nice to have your smell on my stuff" Buffy smiled slightly at this and walked over to sit down next to him. She handed him the mug.

"Drink up, don't want a cranky vampire on my hands"

Spike took the mug off her and downed it in quickly. He shook off his vamp face which had slipped on. Buffy watched him.

"Do you not like looking like that in front of me?"

Spike lowered his head. He didn't know quite how to answer that.

"Don't mind I guess, but then again it's not like your gonna forget what I am"

Buffy felt slightly ashamed but her slayer voice kicked in. Why are you feeling guilty, he's right! You should remember what he is! They sat in silence each lost in there thoughts. For something to do, Buffy took the mug off of Spike, but the contact set them both alight. Spike looked hungrily at Buffy and all of a sudden she found it extremely difficult to breathe. Spike's finger's traced soft patterns on her hands before trailing up her arm making all of Buffy's nerve endings explode. He leaned forward so that his lips were inches away from hers.

"Buffy!" Dawn shouted.

Buffy took a deep breath and pulled apart from him. "Down here!" she squealed.

"Oh! I didn't realise you were down there, it's OK! Take as much time as you need!" Dawn said hurriedly

Buffy got up and walked over to the staircase but Spike was behind her and turned her round so she was backed up against the staircase. She breathed hard. He leaned down and started kissing her neck, Buffy moaned and pulled him closer.

"You" he said between kisses "are not going anywhere"

She pulled his face up and kissed him so hard it was as if she was trying to devour him. There hands roamed freely and soon clothes were discarded in the heat of passion. They tried to keep quiet, but the feelings they awoke in each other were just too explosive to keep the volume down.

Spike collapsed on top of Buffy, grateful that he didn't need to breathe because if he did, he would probably be dead. Well, at least deader then he was now. Buffy gripped his cool body with all of her slayer strength, desperate to hold on to him, breathing heavily. Spike lifted his upper body and rested an elbow on the floor beside her. He smiled at her.

"Aren't you gonna scamper off?"

"I would, but I can't feel my leg's" Buffy managed to gasp out.

Spike just grinned and kissed her on the head.

"God I love you so much" he whispered.

Buffy heard and felt her heart clench, she was so scared, how could someone love her that much? She searched his face as if trying to find an answer there. When she couldn't, she snuggled into his chest, already missing the feeling of her skin on his.

Spike was surprised at this, since when did she snuggle after sex? However he wasn't stupid enough to pass up this opportunity and he wrapped his arms around her tightly. They lay there just content with the afterglow surrounding them.

Suddenly a scream could be heard followed by a large crash. "Buffy! Spike! Demon!"

* * *

He he he oh I'm so evil.... 


	8. The Present

**A/N:** Once again I would like to comment on the FANTASTIC review response, all of you who took the time and effort to review are just the best kinds of people in the whole world.

**Disclaimer: **I have always dreamed of this day... the day when I can say 'I own something!' Woohoo! So Kreckov is all miney mine mine. Shame the rest isn't though.

Dawn looked up at the large demon that was standing in front of her in the doorway. She dropped the bag of rubbish in her hand and screamed. "Buffy! Spike! Demon!"

Buffy and Spike looked at each other for a split second and then jumped up grabbing there clothes and dressed in record time. They tore up the stairs and burst open the door. Buffy went to the counter and grabbed a large knife and followed Spike who had already gone in. She was surprised however to bump into Spike who had stopped dead partly because of the sunlight streaming in, but mainly because of the large scaly demon at the doorway.

"Kreckov! What are you doing here? I said eight o'clock!" Spike shouted at the demon.

"Did you? Well I'm afraid I must have heard you wrong, I could have sworn you said three thirty" the demon replied shocking everyone with a perfectly clear English accent.

"Oh I get it! It's Giles right? But why did you call him Krecko or whatever you just said" Dawn said looking extremely confused.

"It's not Giles, it's one of my mates I told him to come round" Spike explained glaring at the demon.

"You INVITED a DEMON to MY house???" Buffy shouted mouth open.

"Relax, young woman I am not a threat to you, you can let go of the steely grip you have on that sharp metal object" the demon assured her politely

"Kreckov is a friend; he's here to help me with something"

"Oh is he like Clem?" Dawn said brightening at the thought.

"I don't care if he helps old ladies across the street I am NOT letting him into my house" Buffy seethed

"You are very aggressive aren't you? Ah, you must be the slayer then hmm? So that makes you Spike's…" Kreckov paused unsure, like everyone else was about there relationship.

"Spike's what? Wait you told him about us!!" Buffy turned her anger Kreckov to Spike who winced.

"I had to tell him! He's here to help me with a project"

"And what exactly is that?" Buffy said crossing her arms and glaring at Spike.

"Perhaps I can explain" said Kreckov taking a step forward

"You take that step and you won't have feet to walk with" Buffy shot at Kreckov who had the sense to back away.

"Your Christmas present" Spike mumbled.

"My what?" Buffy asked knocked off balance by that response.

"He's here to help me with your present alright?" Spike snapped angry that she had found out like this and quite possibly ruined the surprise.

"I am a spirit demon; I travel between dimensions to attain certain things for people or demons." Kreckov calmly explained.

"Is that supposed to stop me killing you?" Buffy asked eyebrows raised.

"Isn't it hard to travel between worlds with that thick scaly skin?" Dawn asked curiously, the danger now passed. She wasn't scared of the demon now; any friend of Spike's was a friend of hers. Plus this demon kind of reminded her of Giles.

"My skin is like this so that my body can withstand the walls between dimensions, they can be quite explosive" Kreckov said, his head slightly cocked to one side at Dawn.

Dawn was scared now; if this demon knew a lot about dimensions, then could he possibly know that she was the key? She had, like everyone else, assumed that she had somehow stopped being the key when they had defeated Glory, now she wasn't so sure, especially with Kreckov looking at her like that. But Dawn wasn't the only one who was thinking that, at that moment the same thought was running through Buffy and Spike's mind. Buffy's answer was to attack the demon, however before she got a chance, Spike's hand shot out to stop her.

"Look Kreckov's OK, he'll only be here for a little while" Spike tried to defend his friend.

"Yes, what you requested Spike shouldn't take too long, although having a witch would help, you wouldn't happen to know any witches do you?" Kreckov asked.

All of them looked uncomfortable.

"Absolutely not" Willow said firmly arms crossed.

"Oh come on Red, do a guy a favour will you? It's for a good cause I swear" Spike pleaded.

"I'm sorry Spike, I would really like to help you but I can't use magic again. Especially not with a demon" Willow snorted.

"Look I promise you it's not heavy stuff, he just need's a spark of magic to set it off" Spike whined.

"Stop moaning, I won't do it and that's that" Willow crossed her arms, resolve face in place.

"What's going on? Why is there a demon in the living room?" Tara asked in a worried tone as she came into the kitchen where Spike and Willow were.

"Tara! You'll help me wont you?" Spike begged. He needed this to work; it was his only shot at getting Buffy the best Christmas present ever.

"Help you with what?" Tara asked suspiciously, moving to stand next toWillow.

"My friend Kreckov in there is a spirit demon, he's here to help me with a present for Buffy but he need's a magical catalyst." Spike explained anxiously

"A spirit demon? I've heard of those, they normally help…" Tara stopped and looked at Spike in wonder.

"Oh" was all she said.

"What? What do you know about spirit demons?" Willow asked confused.

"Go in and tell him I'll do it, just give me a minute to explain to Willow" Tara said firmly.

Spike felt like kissing Tara "Thank you so much, I'll make sure Buffy knows how much you helped this"

Spike turned and ran into the living room.

"OK, now do you want to tell me what's going on?" Willow turned and asked Tara.

"There is no way in hell I am going in a room with that thing, I'll kill it" Buffy almost shouted.

Tara came into the room. "Buffy, if you don't trust Spike, can you at least trust me? I know what I am doing and I think that if you knew what was going to happen, you wouldn't have such a problem with it"

"Well then why don't you just tell me what's going on?"

"It's a surprise pet" Spike added

Buffy looked at the demon who was standing in the middle of the room looking calmly at her. She then looked at Tara and finally at Spike.

"Fine, but if we do it, we do it in here. And I'm taking a weapon"

Spike visibly relaxed and nodded at Kreckov who then nodded at Tara. Spike shut all the doors in the living room bar one.

"I'm right here if you need me" He then disappeared out of the room. Buffy wondered for a fleeting second why he had said that, but she decided to worry about that later. She walked over to the weapons chest and picked out an axe. She stepped in front of the demon.

"Let's get this over with"

Kreckov merely nodded and Tara shut all the curtains, leaving the room dark. She quickly lit some candles. They all stood in the flickering light and then both Kreckov and Tara closed their eyes. Buffy tightened her grip on the axe and fought the urge to cut Kreckov's head out of sheer curiosity of what was going to happen.

Kreckov started to chant in a language Buffy had never heard before, and he held out his hands to the space in front of him. After a minute or two, bright light came slipping from his hands, snaking its way to make a portal. When the portal was as big as Buffy herself he stopped and Tara glowed slightly. Little balls of green energy escaped from her skin and made there way to the portal. Slowly, as if forming a sculpture the portal's mass began to change and show the form of a woman. Kreckov then shouted again in the strange language and the portal flashed a light so bright that Buffy closed her eyes. When she opened them her face was etched with shock and the axe could be heard clattering to the floor.

"Mommy?"

Spike paced outside which was difficult as there were spots of sunlight everywhere but right now he was just trying very hard to keep calm. What if she didn't like it? What if this just upset her even more? All of these questions ran over Spike's mind a million times. Willow just watched as she sat on the stairs.

"Spike would you sit down? You're making me nauseous"

"I can't sit I'm to wired, I mean what if this was a terrible idea? What if she stakes me? What if she hates me?"

"Wow, you're so stressed your rhyming"

Spike snorted.

"Look, it will be OK, this is a great present and frankly I don't know how you did it, but Buffy will love it" Willow tried to reassure him.

"Did you check on the nibblet? I don't want her to walk in till Buff's finished"

"I told her you and Buffy were having a grown up moment in the living room, that should keep her away for at least 5 hours"

Spike let out a nervous laugh.

"Spike, are you sure it's such a good idea to let Dawn see her? I mean she's been through enough this year"

"Joyce was Dawn's mum too. It's not fair to only let Buffy see her. Besides, when Buffy tells her what happened,Dawn is hardly gonna be happy is she?

"Still it might be a bit much. I don't know if Dawn would get over it."

Spike shrugged. "That's not our choice to make" They both went silent and looked at the closed doors.

"You got a hug for your old mom?" Joyce smiled at her daughter.

Buffy threw herself into giving her mom a hug. She squeezed her so tight that Joyce coughed a little but.

"I see you haven't lost any of that slayer strength" Joyce managed to get out.

Buffy pulled back but still look completely shocked. "Are you… real?"

"I'm as real as you are. For the time being anyway, I'm sorta taking a little vacation at the minute" Buffy just stayed with her mouth open.

"How?"

"That would be your demon friend over here's influence. He's moved me from where I was so that I could pop in and say hello, but I can't stay long"

"What? But there's so much that I…"

"We'll have enough time don't worry" Joyce interrupted " Come, sit down with me"

Joyce led Buffy over to the sofa and they both sat down neither of them noticing the small wisp of silver smoke that was floating where Joyce had been standing.

"So sweetie tell me what's been going on with you"

Dawn paced up and down in her room. She could tell something was going on, she could almost feel it. She really hoped that Willow wasn't doing magic again, because she had this tingling in the back of her neck that told her magic was definitely going on. However, when the gang went to this much trouble to keep you out of it; it was usually because it was dangerous. Dawn sighed, when were they going to stop treating her like she was a baby?

Xander pushed his foot down on the accelerator. It was really bugging him that Spike was alone in the house with some of the most important people in his life. He wasn't going to lie though, the idea of Spike and Buffy together in the house was what really made his skin crawl. He gripped the steering wheel.

"You're going to break that you know, and I won't give you any of my money to get it replaced." Anya scolded him.

"I'm sorry, I just wanna get there to keep the guys safe"

"From Spike? Xander he's got a chip in his head! And even if he didn't do he wouldn't do anything because he is head over heels in love with Buffy"

"And that doesn't bother you? Anya, its Spike"

"But that's exactly my point it's Spike. Big and incredibly old Spike, any fool can see through his big bad image. You're just overreacting because Spike threatens your incredibly fragile male ego"

"That's not it! Look, Spike's bad for Buffy. Her and vampires always end badly; usually with one of us getting hurt"

"So you're masquerading as being concerned about Buffy's welfare when really you are just concerned for yourself. That's really comforting Xander"

"Can we just get there please?"

They drove the rest of the way in silence. For the second time that day, Xander gripped the steering wheel.

"So work's a nightmare, Dawn's a clepto and I have this completely messed up relationship with Spike" Buffy finished after an hour of explaining to her mom how screwed up her life was.

"Buffy you've always done this, made things complicated when they're not"

"See, everyone keep's saying that, but I swear I'm not " Buffy protested

"It's simple really. OK let's start with work, why did you go to work in the Doublemeat anyway?"

"It's the money, there are so many bills's to be paid and stuff that I had to take the first thing that came along"

"Well what about what I left you for your college fund?"

Buffy looked confused. "What? We spent all the money you left us in the insurance and from your will if that what you mean"

Joyce shook her head "No I mean for your college education, me and your father had been saving since you were little for college, and when you dropped out we just left it for when you decided to go back"

Buffy looked confused. "So you mean to tell me that all this time I've had thousand's sitting in the bank?"

Joyce looked at her sternly "Young lady you are not to spend any of that money on shoes"

Buffy laughed "Don't worry, it'll be enough of a relief to not have to go into that awful place again"

"There's enough there for college and for your accommodation, but if you stay at home with Dawn you can use that money for bill's. Then you can go back to school and get a real job"

Buffy's eyes welled up and she gave her mother another crushing hug.

"Thank you so much mom"

Buffy broke apart from the hug "I missed this, how you could come in and make everything OK"

Buffy sniffed and Joyce stroked her hair. "Now about you and Spike…"

"Oh please mom can we not go into that?"

"Buffy Summers, you are not running away from this. I know that you have some issues as you kid's call it when it comes to men but that is not excuse for the way you have been treating him"

Buffy stayed silent and started picking at the couch. Joyce sighed.

"Spike loves you. And I know that you are confused over how you feel about him, but you need to stop treating him like he's the enemy, because let's face it, how many evil things has he done recently?"

Joyce looked at her mother's concerned but stern face and realised that her mother's mere presence was living proof of how much Spike had changed. Maybe it was time she started giving him credit for that?

"You're having one of those moments where I don't have a clue what you're thinking, does that mean you'll consider what I said?"

Buffy laughed "God I missed you mom, sometimes I just wanted you to hold me and tell me it's was gonna be alright"

Joyce tucked a stray hair behind Buffy's ear. "And it will be, but you have to stand on your own now, I know it's hard but it's what you have to do. Be my big strong girl." Joyce smiled.

"I love you mom, you know that right?"

"Of course I do sweetie, and I love you too"

Joyce pulled her daughter in for a hug and Buffy rested her head on her mother's shoulder. For the first time since she came back, she felt like everything was going to be good from now on.

* * *

OK people, so the brief reapperance of Joyce was one of the two main twists in this story, and possibly the one I was most unsure about..... So review! Tell me what you think! All comments are welcome!


	9. Thanks and interruptions

**A/N:** The end is in sight people! Which is quite sad for me because I really enjoyed writing this story, and I absolutely LOVED getting reviews for it (hint hint) In the last chapter I intend to write a massive thank you, plus individual lil thank you's for people who have stuck with this story all the way through. Anywhoo only one more chapter to go! And what a chapter it will be…

Spike was still pacing when Buffy came out wiping a tear from her eye. Spike froze at the sight of her and he didn't know whether to run or hug her as her head was still hung low. Spike held his lack of breath. There was a silence. Buffy raised her head and looked straight at Spike, tears still in her eyes. Spike was shocked when she looked into his eyes as he saw Buffy look so fragile that he was scared she might break. He had never seen her look anything but strong before. He stepped forward timidly and held out his arms slightly. Buffy didn't hesitate in stepping into his arms and letting him pull her in a tight hug.

In his arms Buffy cried. She cried over the joy of seeing her mum again, because she wouldn't have to go to work at the Doublemeat, but mostly, she cried because nobody had ever done anything anywhere near as special as what Spike had done for her.

Willow looked at the two of them and relaxed. She, like Spike had been worried how Buffy would take something like this. But it seems they had no reason to panic, she knew that those were happy tears and notI-hate-Spike tears. She looked at Spike and realised just how content he was in having Buffy with him, and thought that maybe Spike was right for Buffy after all. Then Willow remembered what Tara had told her, about how hard it was to get a spirit demon on this plane let alone cooperate and her opinion of Spike grew. But then, she didn't really care how unmatched they were in the first place, she just wanted Buffy happy and safe.

Dawn stood at the top of the stairs and wondered what was going on, she could hear Buffy crying and she assumed it was because of Spike but when she looked down from the top of the stairs, Buffy was in Spike's arms. Dawn was really confused. She decided it was probably OK to disturb them.

Dawn crept down the stairs and poked Willow in the back.

"What's going on?" Dawn whispered.

Spike turned his head as best he could without disturbing Buffy who had stopped crying but was still clinging to him. He gestured to Dawn to come over, so Dawn got up and went to stand in front of him. Spike didn't say anything, but he pointed to the door.

Dawn turned around and looked at the door. The tingling in her spine grew the closer she got to the door. Dawn looked at Spike nervously, but Spike nodded. Dawn took a deep breath and opened the door hoping that this wasn't some kind of trap. As she closed the door, Dawn looked around the room. She saw both Tara and Kreckov standing in some kind of trance andshe could feel the power radiating off Kreckov. Finally her eyes rested on someone sitting on the couch. Her mother. Dawn almost fainted.

Buffy and Spike sat next to each other on the table with Willow opposite them. They had papers all over the table in front of them.

"Do you think I could burn it?" Buffy suddenly asked.

"Burn what?" Willow asked confused.

"My stupid Doublemeat outfit, do you think I could burn it? We could make it an event you know?Andburn marshmallows on those little sticks"

Spike chuckled " You can do whatever you want with it luv, your free of that dump now"

"I still cant believe we didn't know about all this" Buffy pointed to the papers on the desk " All this money that my mom left that somehow went completely unnoticed!, I mean there's enough from the accommodation money for us to pay all the bills _and_ cover all the slayer related things that always seem to pop up"

"What you mean like weapons and what not?" Spike asked

"No I mean the furniture, do you have any idea how much it costs to replace all the stuff that demon break when they come crashing in? Its sooo inconsiderate"

Willow laughed, "You should write a memo 'When you burst into my house uninvited and try to kill me please try and avoid the lamps, they're new'"

"You make it sound like it's a bad idea!" Buffy said in a pretend shocked voice.

They all laughed and Spike watched Buffy happier then he had been in a long time. He hadn't seen her like this for way too long. She was so full of light now, like she had been when he first fell in love her.

Just then Xander and Anya came in.

"Buffy! Willow!" Xander shouted up the stairs.

"In here! And shhh!" Buffy scolded him, and gestured him to come in.

"Hey Anya, how's the magic box?" Buffy asked.

"Excellent, I made a lot of money today which is important, and I..."

"Where's Tara?" Xander interrupted

"Xander, I was talking, it's hypocritical to interrupt when you are always yelling at me for doing it" Anya said, frowning at Xander.

"She's upstairs wrapping up presents, and she also said to tell everyone that dinner will be in about 20 minutes"

"So everyone's OK?"

"Why wouldn't they be?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Well you never know, I was scared I would come back and find a demon in the house" Xander looked pointedly at Spike but nobody sitting at the table noticed because they had all bowed there heads.

"What? Oh god what happened?" Xander said worried

"Um my friend Kreckov is kinda in the living room," Spike mumbled.

"Kreckov? The spirit demon? How do you know him?" Anya asked amazed.

"Wait can we go back to the whole 'friend' part? You invited one of your demon friends to Buffy's house??" Xander spluttered also amazed but for different reasons.

"Kreckov's a mate OK? He's here doing me a favour" Spike shot at him.

"How do you know a spirit demon?" Anya asked "They are extremely high level, I have only ever heard of them by reputation"

"Oh good, so we have a famous demon inthe house, that makes it better" Xander said sarcastically.

"Spirit demons aren't evil, they help beings on separate planes contact each other. Like if someone from this plane wanted to use a spirit demon they would contact someone who is dead, at least that's the most common one" Anya explained slowly like Xander was extremely dumb.

"But why is he here? And why hasn't Buffy killed him?" Xander asked still confused.

"He helped me talk to my mother" Buffy said quietly.

Xander went quiet. "What did…what was it…" Xander wasn't quite sure what to say.

"It was good. Really good. She helped me work through a lot of stuff, like the whole money situation. Apparently mom left money for my college tuition which we somehow forgot about, so it means I can go back to school and stay here and use the money for accommodation for bills and stuff"

Xander was shocked, he couldn't quite get his head around what Buffy had just told him and the fact this was all arranged by Spike only hurt his head more. Fortunately for him, he was distracted by Dawn coming in from the living room teary eyed. She looked at Buffy and they both silently understood what the other was going through. Dawn walked over and sat next to Buffy and linked Buffy's hand with hers.

Tara entered and she looked pointedly at Buffy. "You OK?"

Buffy smiled easily at Tara " I guess Spike told you then, and you don't have to worry I'm fine"

Tara gave Buffy a quick smile to show that she understood. "So you guy's hungry? We got enough food to last us till next spring"

"I'll go see if Kreckov is done" Spike got up and went to the dining room. Buffy stared at him wistfully for a second and then seemed to snap out of it. She followed the others as they trailed into the kitchen.

Tara took out the turkey and handed it to Buffy while the others argued over who should take in the various dishes. Buffy made her way to the table with the turkey. Just then she heard a shout and a crash from the living room.

She dropped the plate with the turkey, and ran in the direction of the crash quickly followed by everyone else. They all burst into the living room to see Spike wrestling with a large horned demon that looked similar to Kreckov and Tara on the floor sporting a bloody nose. Buffy immediately attacked the demon with a kick to its back whilst Willow, Xander, Dawn and Anya made their way over to Tara.

Buffy and Spike fought the demon, trying hard to keep it away from the rest of the gang. Finally Buffy managed to get a sword from the weapons chest and decapitate it and it dissolved in a puff of smoke. Buffy was bent over on the floor trying hard to regain her breath.

"You know you really shouldn't have done that," Anya said

Buffytried to regulate her breathing, wincing at the pain in her back. "What? Why?"

"That was a Dadoshnick demon, they're dimensional hitchhikers" Anya replied.

"What?" Buffy said confused. Spike got up and went over to her, holding out a hand to pull her up which she accepted.

"A hitchhiker, you know someone who travels between dimensions with another being it must have come in with Joyce" Anya explained

"I know what a hitchhiker is, but why shouldn't I have killed it?" Buffy asked.

"Dadoshnick's usually travel in packs, they're leader will probably come looking for you now" Anya explained.

"Anyone seen Kreckov?" Spike cut in.

"He disappeared as soon as the demon attacked" Tara said while pinching her nose to stop the blood flow.

"You OK baby?" Willow asked Tara worriedly

"I'm good, I just need some ice or something" Tara tried to smile at Willow but found it hurt too much.

Willow led Tara to sit down on the couch. "Dawn, can you get some ice?"

Dawn considered muttering about always having to do these things but she refrained. They didn't need her sarcasm right now.

Buffy stood alert, her slayer side taking over, but in her head she was whining. Didn't these demons know what time of year it was? Shouldn't there be some sort of clause in the slayer contract that said she shouldn't have to drop her Christmas turkey in the name of saving her friends from demons? But right now, she didn't have time to whine." So what's a dado or whatever you just said?"

"A Dadoshnick. They are a rare species of demon, mostly because they go for the pain and the torture rather then just straight death. They are very poplar with vengeance demons." Anya explained.

"So how do we kill it?" Buffy anxious to get this over with.

"It's quite hard to kill a Dadoshnick. Not only are they powerful in strength but also they have a variety of ablities. Immobilisation, teleportation plus a variety of highly unpleasant mental powers. Usually they find a way to attack you personally, its more fun that way."

Xander looked slightly horrified but Anya didn't look bothered in the slightest by what she had just said and carried on.

"Mostly these demons's just float around in limbo, attaching themselves to anything that takes their interest and torturing whoever they find. It makes sense that it would hitch hike with Joyce; they like to go for the more sentimental crossings. It means they can cause greater pain."

"Yeah but Buffy can kill this thing right? It's not gonna get a chance to do some of that pain and torture you keep going on about" Dawn said from the doorway with a pack of ice in her hand. She was worried; the thought of there being a demon like that one that Buffy couldn't kill was just too disturbing.

"Don't worry niblet I won't let anything touch you" Spike reassured her as Dawn walked past him and sat down. She handed the ice pack to Tara who took it and placed it on her nose.

"So we got a plan?" Spike asked.

"Already got one. And it involves me, the demon, and the pointy end of a sword" Buffy said firmly, gripping said sword.

Anya looked at Buffy like she was extremely slow "Dadoshnick's aren't like normal demon's Buffy. You're going to need some other form of weapon other than a sword and a reckless attitude"

"Ahn I don't think that's really helping, Buffy's just trying to figure out how best to go at this" Xander said trying to defend his friend and restrain his fiancé's blunt tongue.

"Well I'm sorry but it's not good enough. I've worked with these demon's and it's all fun and games when your organizing a massacre but Dadoshnick's are not demon's you want to be on the wrong side of, so there's no use wasting time on pleasantries if we are all going to die horrible and painful deaths."

"Anya!" Xander exclaimed.

"We are not going to die. We have faced worse then this before and we have always won. We just need to come up with a plan to kill the demon leader right?

"I think we need backup, maybe a spell or something?" Dawn asked looking at Tara.

"I couldn't even if I wanted to. That spell with Kreckov took a lot out of me, it will take me a little time to get my powers back" Tara said with her head still tilted back.

"Anya, do you know any way to kill it?" Dawn said, now getting desperate.

"Well I know more about what they do then how to kill them, all I know is that you have to pierce the heart of the leaderwith the blood of a fallen warrior"

"That sounds easy enough; I just wait till it sends a minion and then when I kill that, I go after the leader," Buffy reasoned.

Spike was watching her anxious, he had heard of these demon's just like Anya had, but she knew much more about them then he did. All he knew was that they were one of the big scary's that any vampire or lower level demon with any sense stayed away from. Spike was starting to feel scared, and he wasn't used to feeling fear at anything. He suddenly felt an extreme desire to swear and have a cigarette. But looking at the present company, he figured that wasn't such a good idea.

"Wait, if these demon's are hitchhiker's then we don't have to worry do we?" Willow realised "I mean we are not summoning anyone else so it's got no way to get in"

Buffy looked at Anya; unsure whether or not this was a good reasoning.

"No, once one is on a plane and gets killed, all the others can find it easily without a portal."

"Could you maybe give us all the bad news at once, instead of dolling it out slowly for dramatic effect?" Buffy shot at Anya, getting annoyed with her now.

"Don't blame me, I told you it was a bad idea to kill the demon"

"After I had killed it! And what would you have had me do? Kill you all?" Buffy shouted.

Spike stood a little closer to Buffy and gave her a look that he hoped she understood as calm down. He knew that him and Buffy were in a different, better place now since Kreckov, so it meant he could risk telling her to calm down without getting staked.

Buffy looked at Spike and took the message. She realised just how much more she was listening to Spike now. It unnerved her slightly but also gave her a good feeling. Like she had someone she could lean on without feeling weak.

Just then, another Dadoshnick demon attacked, coming from nowhere. Dawn screamed and backed up towards the window, while Willow ushered Tara into the other room. Buffy kicked the Dadoshnick and went to take a swing with her sword but it stopped her and slapped her so hard she fell to the floor.

Spike roared in game face and attacked the demon, furious that it had slapped Buffy. He kicked the Dadoshnick and it staggered back slightly, while Spike delivered more punches to its chest. Just when the Dadoshnick lifted its arm to punch Spike back, a sword appeared through its heart. Its eyes opened wide and it disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Buffy reached up to massage her cheek wincing in pain. Spike stepped up to her with a deeply concerned look on his face.

"You OK pet?"

"Yeah, just hope this won't be a bruise"

Spike reached up and placed his hand on her swollen red cheek. He cupped the side of her face and Buffy closed her eyes. It was as if his fingers were spreading cool fire through her skin. At that moment, she was glad his skin was room temperature. She opened her eyes to see him looking at her with pure adoration and for the first time, she could actually feel it spill through her, lighting her up.

Xander was watching the little 'moment' Buffy and Spike were having and he could feel the anger rising inside of him. He didn't think that Spike had the right to touch Buffy, but a niggling voice in his head noted how affectionate Spike was with her.

Dawn was also watching Buffy and Spike and felt like going 'awwww!' They were the cutest couple she had ever seen! It was obvious just how much Spike adored Buffy, and although her sister couldn't see it, she adored Spike.

"Did you get the blood?" Anya said, interrupting the mood completely.

Buffy stepped back slightly and Spike dropped his hand. She quickly tried to clear her head, willing herself to get back into slayer mode. She looked down at the sword she was holding and saw it was dripping with thin yellow blood.

"Ew! That's so gonna leave a stain" Buffy moaned.

"Hey don't complain your gonna need that, we've still got the leader to worry about" Xander said worriedly.

"That is if we don't get killed by its henchmen first," Anya mumbled.

"We've got the demon blood, that will do right?" Buffy asked.

Anya shrugged "It should do in theory"

"Right, all of you grab weapons, this leader could attack at any time and we want to be ready when it does. Dawn, shut up all the windows and doors, we don't want it to get past us and escape onto the streets. That's got to be our main priority" Buffy said in a firm tone, trying to focus.

Dawn went out of the room. Willow turned to Buffy "Are you sure it's such a good idea to lock us in a house with this demon? I mean I'm all for killing demons but I have had quite enough house arrests with them to last me a lifetime"

"It will be OK I promise, this will probably all be over soon" Buffy said reassuringly.

**A/N: **Sigh. Doesn't Buffy EVER learn? It is NEVER all right! But thankfully it is me writing this and not Joss so she is no danger of dying….


	10. All about the heart

**A/N: **OK, warning to all that this is going to be a long a/n so you can just skip it if you want to. Wow, I can't believe this is the end of the road for this fic,I feel like crying!::sniff, sniff:: But before I shut the door completely I have a few things to say...Well, first things first I would like to thank every single person who read this story, even those who didn't review (but a special mention is coming for those who did) but took the time to read what has fast become one of the most enjoyable things for me to write. I know that people on here can get something like 200 reviews and woohoo for them, but for me, just to know I had a few people who read every chapter made me feel happier then I can ever express. So in lamest terms, THANK YOU!

Now for all you fantastic people who reviewed… funkydevil206, Charmed-angel4, books731, Xtremely- Canadian, Bridge, star2421, hisluvpet, spike-RoXo7, ayruh, pixiecorn, spikefan14, RoleModelGirlie, kitty, kargrif, Tooki, BigBadFaith, shelly, Buffys Dead Lover, Lucky-112, katy, OfficiallyObsessedwithPyro, lilmisscookiemonster, andrea, xmascheer, wolfg07, cursed blondie, Twice987, Spuffy6, spuffyfreak

If your name is not on that list and you reviewed it's because you reviewed more than once and I wanted to give you an EXTRA EXTRA special mention… Slayergirl1212, dude731, darkwillow7, Squirly4spike

And here are some little personal messages…

Anyanka0705- Wow, you have named yourself aptly! You review so much like Anya it's almost scary! At the beginning I was having a selfless flashback 'your questions are irksome…" but I know you were just pointing out the obvious (like Anya does!) and made some worthwhile points. Like the fact that it doesn't snow in California. Very true, but I wanted it to snow on Spike and Buffy's first Christmas (kind of) together, it's like my little revenge at Amends (Trust snow to defy nature in a Bangel moment!) So I am truly sorry if I went against the show or nature, but I bent the rules slightly for this story and I hope that despite all that, you enjoyed it! I also noticed you ended each review with AJ, that's for Anyanka Jenkins isn't it?

Spuffy1192 – I really loved getting your reviews! And the whole 'I'm starting to think you have a little JOss in you' comment had me glowing for days! Also loved how you picked up what I said about the Buffy box, I didn't think anyone read my a/n's!

Foxylady- you know I had to include you somewhere! Love ya even though you only reviewed one chapter (in spite of my constant nagging!)

And so then end is near, and now they face the final curtain…

Three hours later and Buffy and Spike had successfully fought four other Dadoshnick demons, each one getting harder and harder to kill. All of the group were scared, hungry and extremely tired. Buffy was sitting at the table staring into space when Spike came in and sat next to her.

"Well this is fun" Spike commented dryly.

"I keep thinking the leader will come after this demon, and then after this demon but they just keep coming! They're like ants or termites or some other creepy crawlies." Buffy said as she yawned.

Spike pondered something in his head. He really, really wanted to give her a hug but he wasn't sure whether or not she would respond. He took a chance and pulled her into a gentle hug. To his surprise she clung to him and snuggled her head into his chest where he was sure his heart was now beating it felt so good. He stroked her head and kissed her hair.

"You should get some rest luv, your no use fighting if you're sleepy," Spike whispered.

Buffy jerked up out of his arms and Spike immediately wished he hadn't said anything.

"Can't sleep, demons might attack" was all Buffy managed to get out.

They both sat in silence, both missing the body contact more then they ever thought possible. Luckily for them, there was a crash next door. Both of them got up and ran into the living room to see Xander being choked by a very, very large horned demon. Buffy kicked the demon from behind but it did not even flinch. Buffy saw Anya swing at the demon with a chair which broke upon contact and again it did not flinch but tightened its grip on Xander who was spluttering and turning red.

Willow looked at Tara panicked, and Tara looked at Xander and at Buffy and Spike who where both trying hard to wound the demon, but weren't having much of an effect. Tara looked into Willow's eyes and saw the fear there and she slowly nodded her head at Willow. Willow knew what that meant, she knew that Tara was giving her the go ahead, and Willow swore to herself that moment that she would not lose herself this time. She slowly closed her eyes and chanted. A second later she opened her hand to reveal a ball of white energy which she threw at the demon.

This made the demon wobble slightly and Buffy took the opportunity to kick the demon in the back. Hard. The demon let go of Xander who fell to the floor coughing.

Anya, Willow and Dawn rushed over to help him. The demon turned round to see Buffy raise her sword. It reached out and snapped the sword in half. Buffy just looked stunned.

"Slayer! You have killed 6 of my best demons!" The demon roared.

"Guess there's no need for intros then. You must be the leader." Buffy said calmly trying to cover up the fear building up inside of her.

"Dadoshnick demons are feared in every dimension! You have taken my family and now I shall take great pleasure in killing every single one of yours" The Dadoshnick leader spat.

"I'm not family!" Anya piped up.

The Dadoshnick demon turned around saw Anya. "Anyanka! What are you doing with these humans?"

" Oh this and that, plus I'm marrying one of them," She pointed to Xander who was rubbing his neck.

"Marriage? You Anyanka? I am shocked, but for old times sake I will only torture him"

"You are not going to lay a finger on him" Buffy snarled gripping what was left with her sword.

The Dadoshnick demon turned back to Buffy. "These people mean something to you slayer? Then they shall feel every ounce of pain you bestowed on my warriors and then some"

Buffy went to charge at the demon but it simply twisted her round with one arm so she had her back pressed up against its front, facing her friends. Spike went to attack it as well but the demon grabbed Spikes T-shirt and through him hard into the wall next to the rest of the gang.

The demon bent down to whisper in Buffy's ear. "I will find those who matter to you. Those who mean something, whom you love. That way I will have a better idea of who I shall have the pleasure of slaughtering in front of your eyes".

Buffy felt the rise of fear surge though her. The position she was in now reminded her of when the master had killed her; she sincerely hoped that history wasn't repeating itself. She was getting really sick of dieing all the time. Then again, the thought of it happening to any of her friends was 1000 times worse.

Spike was up now and went to go to Buffy but found himself held back by an energy barrier. Dawn tried kicking it but found it made no difference. Willow and Tara were holding hands and chanting. Nothing happened.

"You can't break through it! It's a Dadoshnick barrier, magic only makes it worse!" Anya shouted, the only one who was not trying desperately hard to get out.

Spike looked at Buffy, panic rising in his throat. He was trapped and for all he knew he was going to have to watch her die. In over a hundred years no thought had ever scared the core of his being more then that.

The Dadoshnick raised up a hand to the group. "Reveal!"

All of them apart from Buffy suddenly levitated about two feet off the floor.

"What's happening?" Dawn screeched.

"It's mind exploration," Anya said in a slightly scared voice as she gripped into Xanders hand.

"What? The demons in my mind?" Xander said panicking even more and looking like he was swatting an imaginary fly.

"Not yours Buffy's, he's doing mind exploration on her" Anya said managing to sound patronizing while scared witless.

"And that is??" Spike asked.

"It's kind of like mental heart surgery, only without the blood and the unpleasant smells. It reveals what or more precisely who is in Buffy's heart" Anya explained.

"What? Why is it doing that?" Willow asked confused.

"So it can see who matters most to her, and then maim and kill them in front of her"

Spike stomach churned at that. Would he be in Buffy's heart? He knew it was too much to ask, even after the Christmas present he had given her. But it did't stop him hoping though. He'd go through any amount of torture just to know that Buffy loved him. That he mattered to her.

"Can we do something about this please? I'm really not liking the Neil Armstrong moment we are having" Xander said glancing nervously at the ground.

Willow was about to answer when she suddenly saw her body be light up with a bright yellow light. She looked over at Xander and saw he was also glowing. Both Anya and Tara were also glowing but it was only faint. Dawn however was glowing so bright the light was almost blinding and she floated an inch above everyone else.

Dawn looked at Spike panicking but Spike was trying to keep his emotions in check. Here was Buffy's heart laid out on a platter and he wasn't a part of it. He was about to reassure Dawn that it would all be OK when he started glowing too. The light radiated off him in a strength that rivaled Dawn. He floated up-wards, next to her.

"What the…" Spike was in shock. His whole mind and body was numb as he tried to process what was happening.

Buffy looked up at Spike with tears in her eyes. It felt like the bond between them had been exposed and even she was shocked by its strength. The moment lasted a second before all of them were dropped to the floor.

The Dadoshnick demon threw Buffy aside and picked up Dawn and Spike, one in each hand. "These will die first!" He roared.

Buffy's eyes took in the sight of both Spike and Dawn in danger and instantly felt two emotions. One was fleeting, a heart breaking fear at the thought of anything happening to either of them, but the other lasted longer, and it was a blinding fury. Hate and anger spread through her like wildfire, as she looked the demon straight in the eye to see him smirking wickedly. Never in her life had she felt so livid. As soon as the demon was in front of her, Buffy leapt up and using speed and strength she didn't even know she possessed, Buffy plunged her hand straight through the demon's thick skin and wrapped her fingers around it's still beating heart in a death like grip.

The Dadoshnick's eyes flew open so wide; it looked like they were about to pop out of his skull. The demon dropped Spike and Dawn and made desperate attempts to claw off Buffy's hand, but her hand stayed in place, slowly squeezing the life out of it.

"You mess with my heart, I mess with yours." Buffy snarled in an almost feral voice. "But I am warning you, so much as float the wrong way in the afterlife and I will bring you back from the dead and make you wish I would do this all over again"

With that, Buffy tore out its heart as the Dadoshnick collapsed on the floor. She dropped the heart on the floor, and plunged what was left of her sword straight through it.

A bright explosion lit up the room, sending both Spike and Dawn to opposite ends of the room and the Dadoshnick demon and it's heart disappeared.

Xander, Anya, Tara and Willow just looked at Buffy in shock.

"What?You never said the heart had to be _in_ the body" Buffy said still fuming.

Spike coughed as he pushed himself up from where he had been thrown on the floor. Buffy felt the anger flow out of her as she ran to his side. He looked up at her in wonder and amazement. Her heart felt raw from the spell and the look that Spike was giving her wasn't helping. She stood up and went over to Dawn. She helped her sister up.

"You OK? Any broken bones?" Buffy asked.

"Nah, its cool" Dawn shrugged and looked over at Spike who was staring at Buffy confusion and awe written all over his face.

"I think you should go talk to him" Dawn said indicating toward Spike.

Buffy closed her eyes for a second trying to get a grip on the spiral of emotions Spike's name conjured. "Not now Dawnie, it's too soon"

"So you love Spike Buffy?" Anya asked intrigued by the night's sharp twist.

"What?" Xander said shocked.

"You saw it, he was glowing as much as Dawn, the light represented love which means that Buffy loves Spike" Anya said wondering how she could love someone who could be so dim sometimes.

"What? Have you gone crazy? Buffy doesn't love Spike!" Xander said. He turned and looked at Buffy. "Right?"

Buffy wanted to say that she didn't, that she was just using Spike and he meant nothing to her. But then she remembered the gut wrenching fear she felt when he was in danger of being killed. Even when she disliked him, her first instinct was always to save him.

She looked at him and studied him properly. She took in the Greek god like chest and the peroxide hair and the sculpted cheekbones. She finally rested on his eyes, the blue eyes that had been the source of so much emotion in the past that it was almost unbearable. Could she really love him? He was a vampire, everything she was supposed to hate. But if he defied the rules by loving her, was it so wrong for her to do the same?

Spike was watching Buffy look at him and he had never felt more nervous. It was always extremes with Buffy. Extreme hate, then attraction… love and passion, all these things in strengths Spike didn't even knew were possible. He knew even if everyone else didn't that this was it. This was the moment when she could either deny or accept what everyone had just found out, including him. He knew now that she loved him, but he would never let himself believe it until she said so.

"Buffy?" Xander asked, hoping to death she wasn't about to say what it looked like she was going to say.

"Could you guy's give us a minute please?" Buffy asked the gang without moving her gaze from Spike.

"Uh uh, we're not leaving till you sort this mess out" Xander said firmly crossing his arms

"Fine. Then we will leave" Buffy said and she turned round and went through the kitchen out onto the backyard without as much as a glance toward her friends.

Spike followed as if being pulled by a magnetic thread. He went outside into the cool night air to find Buffy pulling her jumper around herself and staring at the floor. His heart sank.

"Buffy I…"

"Look I just wanna get this out OK?" Buffy said quickly

Spike stayed silent

"Right. Good. Silence is good" Buffy sad rambling to herself. She considered stalling, but then,Spike didn't really deserve that right now.

"So here's the thing. The thing is…. The thing I'm about to tell you"

"Which is?"

"What is?"

"The thing"

"What thing?"

"The thing you were about to tell me!" Spike said, getting annoyed now.

"Oh right!" Buffy laughed nervously.

There was a pause.

"So are you going to spit it out or what?"

"Spit what out?"

"BUFFY!" Spike nearly roared in frustration.

"Right, right. The thing. The thing that I was gonna tell you. Out here. In the freezing cold" Buffy mumbled, wrapping her jumper even tighter around her.

"Do you even feel the cold?" Buffy asked curiously.

Spike just shook his head in disbelief and walked past her, intending to leave. If she wasn't going to tell him anything then he was just gonna leave like he should have done in the first place.

"Spike wait!" Buffy turned and called to him. "Please, I promise I'll tell you"

Spike turned round with an eyebrow raised, convinced she was just going to stall some more.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak again but one more look at him and before she knew it she was kissing him.

She broke apart gasping. "I was always much better at show then tell"

Spike just kissed her again and Buffy kissed him back. But this kiss had passion not violence, and for the first time ever, it held love and not lust.

When she broke apart again for air she whispered, "Oh god I love you so much"

Spike pulled back and stared into her eyes, which confirmed what she had just said. He smiled the gentlest smile, his blue eyes dancing with elation. He kissed her again.

"In case you didn't guess, that's the thing" Buffy grinning slightly as she broke apart from him temporarily.

"And just in case you forgot" Spike kissed her again with more passion then before. "I love you to, you silly bint" And before she had a chance to protest at the 'bint' part, he kissed her with even more fire.

A moment later, yelling and shouting could be heard. Spike and Buffy looked over to see Dawn and Tara at the window, jumping up and down and whooping.

"Yay!!! Yippee! Awww! You guys are so cute together!" Dawn shouted.

Spike just grinned and pulled Buffy up off her feet kissing her again and spinning her around.

Tara looked at Buffy and Spike and grinned. Looks like things had worked themselves out, she thought as she gripped Willow's hand who had appeared next to her, and was smiling also.

After what seemed like an eternity, Buffy and Spike broke apart for the final time.

"We really should go inside, I'm hungry," Buffy mumbled from where she was snuggled in Spike's chest, her arms wrapped around him under his duster.

"Got all I need right here luv, don't see why we have to move"

Buffy lifted her head up to look at Spike, her breath visible in the night. "You must be hungry too"

"I am, just not for blood," Spike said still grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"I would call you a pig, but it's not a very nice thing to call your boyfriend"

"Boyfriend?" Spike asked shocked.

"Don't tell me after all this your gonna develop commitment phobia"

Spike pulled Buffy even closer. "Never"

"Besides" Buffy whispered as her hands traveled under his shirt "It's Christmas Eve and I still have to give you your Christmas present"

Spike raised one eyebrow "You got me a Christmas present? Should I be worried?"

Buffy giggled, " Not unless you have anything against Santa costumes"

Spike looked slightly hesitant "A Santa suit?"

Buffy leaned in and whispered in his ear "It's not for you"

Spike just stared at her in shock that he was going to see Buffy in a Santa suit." What the…" He couldn't't even form a coherent sentence.

Buffy saw his reaction and all her regrets or doubts about buying it disappeared. "Well I guess you can't really call it a costume seeing as there isn't much to it" She grinned in a way that was startlingly similar to Spike's.

Spike let out a growl of desire as Buffy wiggled her hips and her hands continued to explore his body. " Be prepared to have it ripped from your body"

"Got no complaints here," Buffy said smiling.

She leaned in and kissed him "Best" another kiss "Christmas" another kiss "Ever"

The last kiss got a little carried away, and they never did make it into the house. They preferred to stay out and watch the stars although considering the way they made each other feel; they could probably fly there.

**A/N: **So that's it. The end. But then again that of course is up to you… See I am in two minds whether or not to do a sequel, mainly because I want to keep writing the story, but also because there are still things left unfinished… like whether or not the group actually eat at some point, and will the sccobies accept Buffy and Spike as an item? The choice is yours people, to be or not to be? That is always the question. So on top of reviewing (which I sincerely hope you do) I would also like you to vote as to whether or not I should consider continuing the love affair I have with this fic. Is it cookies? Or is it still cookie dough…

Lol, had to get the cookie analogy in there somewhere. Love to you all again, and REVIEW!


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